The Wild Horse Duels! A RanmaYugiohGX fanfic
by Cloud1239999
Summary: Ranma Saotome is getting tired of being a martial artist. It is several months after the wedding incident, and life has only gotten worse. The answer to Ranma's problem started with a new type of challenge. Watch and learn, as Ranma plays Duel Monsters
1. Signing up for the tournament

Okay, to those of you who are waiting for the next chapter of Za Kaze Shokkou, I am sorry to say that I wound up getting a little side tracked. While I am on a bit of a jam on what to do with the bridge fight, I decided to take some time and start on this idea that has been lying in the back of my head for quite a while. I have already written the prologue and the first two chapters of this story, which I am going to post all at once. My reason for posting all three chapters right now is that I'm actually not on the internet right now. My satellite company is being an arse about it so I am at an internet café in a town that is a half hour drive away from where I am right now.

I hope you all enjoy my new idea, and I'll see you all later.

OoOoO

The Wild Horse Duels! – A Ranma ½ and Yu-gi-oh GX crossover.

Prologue: Signing up for the tournament.

Written by: Cloud1239999

OoOoO

AN: Alright, I know that several of you want more chapters of Za Kaze Shokkou to come out amongst other stories, but I just couldn't get the idea for this story out of my head, so I decided to start writing it. I don't think that this story will be as good as my others, but I thought that it'd be a fun idea to write.

Just to let you all know, this story takes place a couple months after the wedding incident in Ranma ½, and a few months into Jaden's first year at Duel Academy in Yu-gi-oh GX.

Ranma may seem different from how he usually is in most fanfics, but that is because in this story he has started to become tired of the random attacks by his rivals, and he has started to look into doing something else with his life than just martial arts, much to his father's dislike. He has almost lost all feelings for Akane, since she went back to being an ultra-violent tomboy after the ruined wedding. In her mind, it was Ranma's fault and he really didn't want to hate her. Don't be surprised if the little of Akane you'll see in this story that she's overly violent and hateful of Ranma. It is supposed to be that way. Ranma has however become a lot closer to Kasumi and Nabiki. Nabiki is no longer as harsh on Ranma as she used to be; she feels that it's her way of apologizing to Ranma for the wedding, and Kasumi and Ranma have started talking more, with Ranma starting to assist Kasumi in her house duties so that she'll have more free time. That last part is frowned greatly upon by their fathers, though Ranma doesn't care about what they say about it. So I guess you can say that in some ways Ranma is OC in this fic. So don't be surprised and please don't flame me about Ranma being different. I have told you ahead of time that he will be and given the reasons why so there really is no reason for people to be filling up the reviews page with flames.

As for martial arts fights, there won't be that many of them. Maybe one or two towards the beginning, nothing big, and then later on there might be a fight with Ryoga, but other then that I do not know what I will do for fights. If you want to read a fanfic with tons of fights from me, then please read my story Za Kaze Shokkou, which is under the Naruto section of this website. I'll tell you now though that the prologue and the first four chapters have very little to no fights, though from then on the story will be picking up speed and going into a lot more fights along with some romance later in the future.

Now that I'm finished talking about that stuff, I'll get onto the story now. Please enjoy it as much as I've written it.

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Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ or Yu-Gi-Oh GX in any name shape or form. The closest thing to it is that I have several Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Gameboy games that I enjoy playing. The deck that Ranma uses however is the deck that I really use for myself in the 'Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters: World Championship 2006' game. Ranma's deck will change a bit too as my deck does in that game.

OoOoO

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Tokyo. The sun was shining warmly down on the people. The sky was clear. There was a line of two hundred people standing outside of a building. Amongst this line of people stood Ranma Saotome the martial artist extraordinaire.

What the people in the line were waiting for was to register for their chance to be one of the sixteen competitors in the local 'Duel Monsters' tournament. The reason why Ranma was in the line for a tournament for a card game was simple; he was answering his part of a challenge that was proposed to him a month prior to this day.

The reason why this challenge was accepted was simple for those people who knew him. It was the Anything Goes martial arts style's bushido. Specifically though is the part where a practitioner must accept any challenge given at any time. Ranma's challenge was that he had a month to learn how to play the game of Duel Monsters, which he'd of only heard of in passing before then, and to make it in as one of the top sixteen to duel in the tournament itself.

Since it was summer, he spent as much time as possible learning the rules of the game from surprisingly, Kasumi. It turns out that she was familiar with the game being a casual player who sometimes played with some of her high school friends during those times that she did leave the house.

Ranma spent the first week learning about the rules of the game, and then being shown and taught about specific cards that were either commonly used, or were unorthodox enough to be thought of using by Kasumi.

The first three days of the second week were spent visiting spots where people got together to duel with each other. This was anywhere from café's to card stores where some minor competitions were being held. Ranma watched as much as he could in order to further his understanding of the rules and how some cards were being used in combinations with others. The fourth day of that week Ranma went out and bought his starter deck; he'd of managed to convince Nabiki to leave him alone, which she did since she realized that Ranma may be able to go places and get more money if he was devoting himself as much to the game as he did his art, which he was.

With Kasumi's help Ranma was able to research which sets he'd need to get cards from if he wanted to obtain the specific cards he wanted to be in his deck, and he managed to get most of the cards that he wanted.

The remaining two weeks Ranma spent time either playing with Kasumi or going to some of the café's that he went to the week before and playing against other duelists to familiarize himself with the game further and two test his deck out against others.

During the time that Ranma was thinking about his time preparing himself for today the line had of went along until there were only two more people ahead of him. He looked back to see that there were still the eighty or so people behind him waiting just as patiently, or in some cases impatiently, as he was.

Ranma looked forward again when he heard the monotonous voice of the receptionist at the front desk. "Next."

Ranma smiled at the middle aged woman ahead of him as he walked up to the desk.

"Welcome to Kaiba corps's Tokyo office. I am Rumiko Takahashi, and I need to ask you a few questions to register you for the 2006 Tokyo Duel Monsters professionals test tournament." Upon Ranma's nod she continued. "May I have your name please?" "Ranma Saotome."

"Is there an alias that you want to go by during the competition?" That question caught Ranma off guard. He rubbed the back of his head for a second before answering looking a little sheepish.

"How about, 'General Wild Horse'?" She smiled at the little joke involving his first name and his alias.

"General Wild Horse it is then sir." She typed it into the computer she was sitting behind. "Your age please."

"Seventeen."

"Does your deck have a name?" She looked back up at Ranma waiting for his answer. She thought that she'd have to wait for him to come up with a name, but she was proven wrong pretty quickly.

"The New Age Warriors." The lady quirked her eyebrow at the name.

"Not bad. It doesn't give away much about your deck either except that it is based on warrior monsters I assume? Not to mention that it actually goes along well with your alias."

"Yes, Takahashi-san."

"Alright then Saotome-san, I will need to see your deck so that I can record which cards you are using for the competition. Please keep in mind that I'll also need to see your side-deck since you'll only be able to make changes to your deck throughout the competition with those cards."

"Alright then." Ranma replied as he pulled his case holding the two decks out of his pant's pocket and handing them to the lady. She took a few minutes to search through the deck and smiled at some of his choices.

"I must say that I'm quite surprised at most of your cards Saotome-san. They are quite unconventional but thinking about it they do work quite well together." She smiled up at him. "If you'll follow me then I'll lead you to a room where a tournament proctor will test you." She stood up from the computer while handing Ranma his card case back. Another woman came by and took Rumiko's seat as Ranma followed her. Rumiko kept talking as she led Ranma through the hallway. "In order to make it into the top sixteen and the tournament thereafter, you'll have to defeat the proctor. Afterwards your duel will be reviewed by a few of the higher-ups here along with the other competitors' duels, and they will decide which sixteen of the victor's will compete in the tournament." Ranma nodded his head in understanding.

A minute later they reached a desk in front of a set of rooms labeled 'Dueling arena'. Rumiko took a minute to hand a piece of paper over to a tall English man sitting there and after asking Ranma to wait there she walked off. The man read over the papers before looking up to Ranma.

"Greetings Mr. Saotome. I am Bill Leeman. Are you excited about competing?" Ranma smirked in reply.

"Competition is what I've always lived for Leeman-san." Bill raised an eyebrow at Ranma's statement.

"Really then, if you don't mind me asking; how long have you been playing Duel Monsters?"

"I've only been really playing for two weeks now. I actually only started playing when I was given a challenge to learn the game and to try and make it into the top sixteen." The man looked surprised at this.

"Oh really. No offense son, but are you sure that you want to be competing in this tournament? You will be going up against some of the best novice players in Japan today." Ranma smiled again at the man.

"Yes, I am sure. As I said, I've always lived for competition. I actually spent the first two weeks of the last month learning about the game from a great friend of mine. She then helped me to obtain the cards that I needed for my deck," he held up his deck to emphasize his point "then I spent the last two weeks playing the game as much as possible and I'm feeling really confident about my abilities. I know that I won't win the tournament if I make it into the top sixteen, but I plan on making it as hard as possible for my opponents to win." Bill smiled listening to Ranma talk.

"Okay then Ranma, you don't mind if I call you that do you?" When Ranma said it was okay, he continued. "Normally I wouldn't let you into the prelims with your lack of experience, but you've managed to convince me that you'll be a real competitor if you make it in so I'll let you. Go ahead and give that proctor hell for me. Oh, and if you win the duel you will be given a phone call tonight about whether you'll be competing past the prelim. I wish you the best of luck." With that the man stood up and shook Ranma's hand. Then he opened the door behind him for Ranma to walk through.

OoOoO

A few hours later on the top floor of the Kaiba corps building there was a meeting taking place. Eight men were sitting around one side of a table while watching recordings of duels between several entrants and their proctors. Of the two hundred people that signed up for the tournament only thirty managed to beat their proctors. The end of the video that they were watching now showed Ranma, who was wearing a dueling disk and holding two cards, doing a victory sign as he stood with a 'Gearfried the Iron Knight' and a 'Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke' in front of him. As the video ended the lights turned on to show the pensive faces of the video's viewers.

In the middle of the other eight higher-ups sitting in the office sat Seto Kaiba, who was currently wearing a smirk much like Ranma's on his face.

"It seems that we have some very interesting competitors this year. I would like to know though, who was the one who let this Saotome Ranma compete in the prelims." Bill who was sitting at the end of the table stood up.

"That would be me sir." Bill had a small smile on his face as he answered Seto. He'd of been expecting this from Kaiba.

"What was your reasoning for letting this rank-novice compete?"

"When Rumiko-san first brought Saotome-san to me I'd of questioned him as was required, but when he described to me his reasons for competing I couldn't help but become intrigued with his character."

"You mean to tell us that you didn't let him in because of his skills?" Asked the blonde haired woman sitting to Seto's right.

"How was I to know of his skills Mai? He may only have had two weeks of actual dueling experience, but looking at his registration form and deck list, I couldn't help but become impressed by him." Mai was about to berate him again but Bill interrupted her. "Besides that, his determination and confidence in himself is what won me over. He was confident that he would be able to go up against the other competitors and give up a damn good fight. I came to the realization that he is one of those few people that could be really entertaining to watch. He was emotional and down-to-earth enough to keep my interest in our conversation. I thought that he would probably be able to transfer that trait over into his duels, and from what we just saw, I would have to say that I was correct." He took a deep breath and looked at the other chairmen and noticed their rapt attentions. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I certainly enjoyed watching him, and not just his match with the proctor." Bill finished speaking with a small smirk on his face as he watched most of the others consider his words. He met Seto's eyes and Kaiba smirked seeing the confidence in Bill's eyes.

"So I take it then, that you'd like to see Mr. Saotome as one of the sixteen Bill?"

"Yes sir, if anything he may raise the television ratings with his character even if he doesn't make it too far in the tournament." Bill bowed to Seto as he finished speaking. "Not only that, but I'd like to think of his competing as an investment." Kaiba raised an eyebrow hearing that, as did a few of the others.

"I say that because I believe that as new as he is to the game, he has learned really quickly. Much faster then most people I know of did in fact. If he can keep learning and growing in ability then he may one day become pro for real. I heard that Professor Banner of Duel Academy will be in town for the next several days and he wants to check out some of the new talent that will be in the tournament." Kaiba grew another smirk as he realized where this was going. "I believe that Mr. Saotome may be able to catch Mr. Banner's attention and receive an invitation to Duel Academy where Ranma would certainly learn more about the game and will then be much more likely to turn pro. At the time that he does turn pro, and I am confident that he has the ability to do so, he may look back upon this tournament as the place where he started and Kaiba corps would become further renown in the dueling industry as a place that promotes great duelists." Kaiba leaned back in his chair and smiled. After a few seconds he spoke breaking the small silence that settled over the room.

"I like it. I say that we give this Ranma Saotome a position in the tournament. Don't worry about getting someone to give him a call. I will call him tonight myself to let him know that he made it, and to tell him that I would like to meet with him before the tournament. I must say that many of the pros nowadays lack the enthusiasm and character that Ranma showed us he has in his duels. Now let us decide on the other fifteen." When Kaiba finished saying that Bill sat back down with a huge grin on his face, and the meeting continued.

OoOoO

At the Tendo dojo, Ranma was just getting back from his daytrip into Tokyo. "Konichiwa." He called out as he flipped his sandals off of his feet.

As he continued into the living room where Nabiki was watching the news on television, and the fathers were playing shoji, Kasumi popped her head out of the kitchen to greet him.

"Konichiwa Ranma-san. How did it go at the registration today?" Kasumi asked him.

"He probably got kicked out since he doesn't have that much experience sis." Nabiki said deciding to listen in since the television had of just went into commercials.

"Actually, they did let me in Nabiki. Apparently I managed to impress one of Kaiba Corps employees when we chatted for a bit. He did say that normally he would have kicked me out, but for some reason he was interested in seeing how I'd do." Ranma shrugged his shoulders as he sat down on a chair in front of the TV. "I had my prelim match against a proctor and won, so I was told that some chairmen who were there that day would be reviewing tapes of the duels of those who won in there prelim match and deciding which sixteen would be competing. I'm supposed to expect a phone call tonight to tell me whether I made it into the top sixteen or not."

"Well, I wouldn't expect too much since you were competing against much more experienced players then you." Nabiki said as she turned back to the television since the news came back on.

"I know that Nabs. I even told the proctor as such, but he said he had a good feeling about me, so I'm not counting myself out until I get that phone call." Kasumi smiled hearing Ranma say that. Then she remembered something.

"Ranma, could you please take the garbage out for me while I finish cooking dinner?" Ranma turned to Kasumi and nodded his head before grabbing the five garbage bags that were by the kitchen's entrance and stepping outside with them.

While Ranma was outside not much was happening until the phone rang. After a few seconds it was Kasumi who answered it.

"Konichiwa, Tendo residence." Kasumi greeted the person on the other end of the phone.

"Hello, miss Tendo. I was wondering if Ranma Saotome is home." The person on the other end, Seto Kaiba asked.

"Yes he is sir. He will be a few minutes though; he just went to take the garbage out to a dumpster that's at the end of the block."

"That is quite alright. I can wait."

"Alright then." Kasumi stood there for a second with the phone seeing if Ranma would be back right away. After a few seconds she saw that Ranma wasn't back yet, so she decided to keep the person on the other side of the phone company until Ranma got back. "I'm sorry sir, but it seems that Ranma is taking his time today. May I ask who this is so I could tell Ranma when he gets back?"

"That is no problem Miss Tendo, this is Seto Kaiba of Kaiba Corps."

"Oh my!" She said as she blinked almost stupidly at the phone for a few seconds.

"Who is it Kasumi?" Nabiki asked as she noticed that Kasumi was looking at the phone weirdly. Kasumi quickly shook herself out of her stupor as she heard her sisters voice. She was quick to turn back to the phone.

"I'm sorry about that Kaiba-san. I was just surprised that it was you who was calling to talk to Ranma." Kaiba chuckled a bit when he heard her say that. Nabiki on the other hand was staring at her older brother disbelievingly hearing the name she spoke.

"It was no problem miss… I'm sorry for being rude, may I have your name."

"Kasumi Tendo sir." She answered.

"Ok, Kasumi. Is Ranma back yet?" Kasumi looked around just in case she missed Ranma's return while she was busy being shocked over who the caller was. As she looked around, she heard the front door open and close again.

"Ah, it seems that he just got back if that was the front door I heard."

"Thank you Tendo-san."

"Please, that's my father who people call that."

"Alright then, Kasumi-san." As Seto said this Ranma had of just walked into the living room again.

"Ranma-kun, Kaiba-san is on the phone for you." Ranma looked puzzled for a second.

"Is it the representative for Kaiba Corps?" He asked Kasumi after a second as he approached her.

"Seto Kaiba is the president of Kaiba Corps Ranma. It seems that he decided to call you himself." She still couldn't believe that it was 'THE' Seto Kaiba that her sister was just talking to. She just about had dollar signs in her eyes just thinking about what this could mean for Ranma.

"Oh, okay then." Ranma's casual response had Nabiki's eyes ticking and Kasumi giggling. Nabiki was about to yell at Ranma when she stopped since Ranma had of just grabbed the phone.

"Moshi, moshi. Ranma here." Kaiba couldn't help but smile a bit at the casual greeting. It wasn't that often that someone greeted him like that when they knew who he was.

"Good day Saotome-san. I am here to call you about your duel today against our proctor and to ask you a few questions." Hearing this Ranma decided to get comfortable and lean against the wall.

"Alright then, Kaiba-san. Ask away whenever you're ready. Oh, and please call me Ranma. I'm not really much for formalities when it isn't necessary." Kaiba chuckled quietly to himself since Ranma was still treating him as if he was just another person out on the street. He couldn't help but think it was refreshing in a way.

Nabiki was looking like a fish out of water due to the way that Ranma was talking to Kaiba.

"Ranma-san it is then." The smile on Seto's face wouldn't go away right now even if he wanted it to. "I heard that before your duel, you were talking to Leeman-san and he mentioned that you're really a new duelist who only started learning the game a month ago. Is this correct?"

"Yes Seto-san, it is." Ranma responded causing Seto to wonder if it was in this kid's personality to disrespect superiority, or if he really just saw everyone the same.

"I found that really interesting. Considering the time frame that you've had to learn, I along with several of my colleagues were quite surprised with how well you did. Oh, and before I forget, you have made it into the top sixteen. You ranked in spot number fourteen."

"That's cool. I'll admit that I thought that if I make it in, I'd it by the skin of my teeth." This time Seto chuckled aloud hearing that.

"Well, I'll tell you that you actually had more space then by the skin of your teeth. You actually did quite well." Kaiba stopped for a second to check the time before grimacing though Ranma didn't know this. "I'm actually sorry Ranma-san, but I just realized that I have another meeting that I must be getting to in the next twenty minutes. I would love to keep chatting, but it is for the tournament in two days time."

"Ok."

"Well then, if you don't have any plans I'd like to actually meet you in person. I have a few cohorts who are also interested in meeting with you as well. Would you be open to meet with us at the 'Menage Twoi' café here in Central Tokyo at noon tomorrow?"

"I believe I saw that café on my way to your building today. Sure, I don't have any plans for tomorrow so it should be no problem for me to get there by that time unless I get attacked again." Kaiba blinked hearing that last part.

"You'll have to tell me about that later. It sounds like an interesting story." Ranma chuckled to himself hearing that.

"I've had many people say that my life is an unbelievable story Seto-san." Kaiba smiled again hearing Ranma's answer.

"Well then, I have to go now so I will see you tomorrow at noon. Oh, and if you want you can bring one guest with you. Don't worry about money, I'll pay."

"Thank you Seto-san. I'll be there. Bye for now."

"Bye." Seto answered before they both hung up their phones.

When Ranma looked up he noticed that everyone except for Akane who wasn't around was staring at him expectedly. "What?" Ranma asked looking puzzled.

"How did it go?" Nabiki asked continuing to look at Ranma expectantly. Kasumi smiled thinking that that was so like her curious younger sister.

"Oh, well he wanted to ask me a few questions to clarify some stuff that he heard about how long I've been a duelist. When I confirmed what he was told he said that he was quite impressed. He told me that I made it in. Ranking fourteen out of sixteen for all of the people who managed to beat their proctor in the prelim. After that we just chatted for a few minutes before he said that he had to go to a meeting that was taking place in twenty minutes." Nabiki and Kasumi nodded to him. The fathers however jumped to their feet and started barraging him with questions.

"Did he say anything else boy?" Idiot #1 (Genma) started.

"Did he want to make a contract with you?" Idiot #2 (Soun) followed.

"Give you money?" #1 again.

"Have a meeting with you?" #2.

Anything?" They both finished at the same time.

Ranma just shook his head. He wasn't stupid enough to tell the father's that he was supposed to go meet Kaiba the next day for lunch. He wanted to invite Kasumi as a thank you for teaching her the game and he didn't want the fathers trying to ruin it like so many other things.

Genma and Soun deflated in reaction to Ranma's nod. Then they both went into water fountain mode.

"What a disgrace my son is, not being able to get anything from the head of Kaiba Corp." Ranma sweatdropped as the fathers continued sprouting on about what a failure Ranma was.

Ranma chose this opportunity to grab Kasumi and Nabiki by the shoulders and walk into the kitchen with them. When the three of them were in there Ranma looked back out for a second to make sure that Genma and Soun were still busy dramatically crying. When he was satisfied that they hadn't of noticed that they left Ranma turned back around to see the two sisters looking at them questioningly. Ranma found it amazing how similar the two looked when they were doing that. He shook off that thought before speaking.

"Sorry about pulling you off like that." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"That's alright, but I'm guessing that there's something that you don't want those two hearing." Ranma nodded to Nabiki's statement.

"Yeah, it's just that I've actually been invited to meet with Seto-san and a few of his cohorts for lunch tomorrow at the 'Menage Twoi' café in Central Tokyo tomorrow at noon." Nabiki whistled hearing that.

"That's quite the nice café." Nabiki commented.

"Congratulations Ranma." Kasumi said.

"Thanks Kasumi-san. Anyways, I was told that I could invite someone, and I'd like that someone to be you Kasumi."

"Oh my!" Kasumi blushed though Ranma didn't notice it since she was quick to cover her face with her hand. Nabiki though did notice, she just chose not to say anything on it.

"I don't think I was pulled into here to listen to you ask Kasumi to go with you, so I'll go ahead and take a shot in the dark guessing that you would like me to do what I can to keep the rival's and fiancée off of your backs so that you won't be interrupted." Ranma nodded at Nabiki.

"If you would please do so?" Ranma looked like he was almost begging though he would never admit to the act. Nabiki shook her head in amusement at the look.

"I'll do what I can for you Saotome, though you will owe me for this one. It'll take resources to keep them busy so I can't just give the help for free." Nabiki said after a few seconds.

Ranma bowed to her. "Thank you Nabs. It is greatly appreciated." Just the fact that Ranma bowed, never mind the fact that he showed real manners there surprised the two sisters.

Nabiki smiled a bit, she was just beginning to see that there was much more to Ranma than a competition driven nut. "You're welcome."

With that out of the way Nabiki left the kitchen, walking past the still bawling fathers to watch the television again. Kasumi and Ranma stayed in the kitchen for a bit longer discussing what they needed to do to prepare for lunch the next day.

OoOoO

End Prologue

OoOoO

End AN: This time I don't really have much to say about the story since I'd of already covered everything I'd want to say before the story started. I guess all there is left to say is that I hoped that you enjoyed the chapter, and that I'd like to hear what you all think.

And to quickly point out; yes I did use the name of Ranma's creator for the secretary in the lobby of the Kaiba Corps building. I just decided that it would be a little bit of humor.

To think about it actually, I would like to ask some help from all of you. I know exactly what I'm going to do for the start of this story, but a few chapters after Ranma makes it to Duel Academy, then I don't know exactly what I'm going to do for scenarios that Ranma will wind up in while he's there. I could have him going alongside Jaden and his friends, but I would like to have a few situations where Ranma winds up going solo, more original things, not Ranma taking Jaden's place in stuff. If you have any ideas please **PM ME** **THEM.** I just don't want people to see them if they look at reviews so that's why I'm stressing that they be PM'd. I will of course give credit to where it is due if I use an idea, and I may wind up twisting an idea a little bit to turn it into something that will work better for me. I thank those of you who might contribute in advance. I'm not really expecting much if anything, but still. Thanks to those who help.

Tata for now.


	2. Ch 1: Eating lunch at the Cafe

OoOoO

The Wild Horse Duels! – A Ranma ½ and Yu-gi-oh GX crossover.

Chapter One: Eating lunch at the Café! Or, The Day before the Tournament!

Written by: Cloud1239999

OoOoO

Warning: This chapter has a part with language that some might find offensive. Past this chapter I don't intend to continue using such language. Please bare in mind with me, it is only there to further emphasize how far a certain character has fallen.

AN: From now on AN's will only be put at the end unless it is something important. Anything that can be credited to other people will be given full credit to the proper people at the end of the chapter that uses it. I'll be doing that so that if the person who was a part of that idea won't expect to see their idea ahead of time.

OoOoO

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ or Yu-Gi-Oh GX in any name shape or form. The closest thing to it is that I have several Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Gameboy games that I enjoy playing. The deck that Ranma uses however is the deck that I really use for myself in the 'Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters: World Championship 2006' game. Ranma's deck will change a bit too as my deck does in that game.

OoOoO

It was 11:30am the day after Ranma had his talk on the phone with Kaiba. At the current time Ranma who was female, and in one of the suits that he'd of obtained in his travels was waiting along with Kasumi for noon at another much more casual café across the street from the 'Menage Twoi'. More specifically, they were waiting for a sign of Seto arriving. Kasumi had of seen pictures of the man before, so Ranma was relying on her to spot him. The two casually sat in their window side booth drinking some warm water watching out of the window silently. As they waited they calmly chatted about some of the strategies that Ranma would be exploiting during the tournament the next day.

At 11:45 Kasumi and Ranma noticed a limousine pull up in front of the Café where they watched a tall brown haired man climb out of the vehicle once the door was opened by a man that Ranma recognized as Bill Leeman.

"Well there's Kaiba, Ranma-kun." Kasumi spoke after a second.

"Alright, the man who opened the door on the Limousine for him was Bill Leeman, the guy I told you about that talked to me for a bit before I dueled with the proctor." Kasumi nodded in recognition to his description. "Well shall we join them?" Ranma asked this as he poured a small amount of the warm water on the back of his hand to trigger his transformation, and stood up extending his arm for Kasumi to put her hand through.

Kasumi and Ranma had of decided that they were going to go all out on being polite, as if they were at an important social function.

"I'd be glad to Ranma-kun." She replied as she took Ranma's arm and they left the small café to head over to the 'Menage Twoi'. You'll have to tell me later where you learned to be so polite. No offense meant but I, along with the rest of my family, thought you didn't have a polite bone in your body." Ranma smiled up at Kasumi hearing that.

"I learned manners at one of the dojo that I trained at during the training trip while dad was away somewhere. I've just never used those manners in front of my father, because as dense as he is, he'd probably realize eventually that I know a lot more than he wants me to if I kept acting in ways that he didn't want me to."

By the time that Ranma finished saying that they were already across the street and in front of the doors to the café 'Menage Twois'. The two stepped inside of the door and looked around. All they could think of saying about what they saw was that it was really fancy. Hanging from the roof in the room was a chandelier, and all of the booths and tables looked to be made to leave the customers in absolute comfort. Since they were so busy looking around they never noticed the chaperone who walked up to their side until the man cleared his throat.

"Name please." Ranma blinked at the man for a second before he realized that they must have needed a reservation to get in.

"Oh, pardon me sir. My name is Ranma Saotome. I was invited here to join Seto Kaiba for lunch, and I was told that I could bring along a guest." The man nodded before he started going over the reservations list.

"Ah yes, Seto Kaiba is on here. I'll just go over and check with him whether he is expecting you or not. I'll be right back Saotome-san." After he finished speaking the chaperone walked off towards a booth that was all the way in the back corner. It was in a location where people couldn't look in to see who was there unless they walked within ten feet of the booth.

Kasumi and Ranma waited patiently as the chaperone stopped and bent over to have a whispered conversation with someone who they assumed was Kaiba. After a few seconds the chaperone took a step back so Bill Leeman's head could poke around the edge of the room to take a look at them. Ranma and Bill's eyes met for a second and they nodded to each other before Bill turned back to the chaperone and said something that they couldn't hear. After that the chaperone bowed to Seto and Bill then walked back to the front of the café.

"I'm sorry for the delay Sir, madam. I will take you over to your booth." With that said the chaperone turned around and grabbing two menus, lead the two over to the booth where they saw Kaiba. As they got to the table Bill, Seto, and two more people that Ranma didn't recognize stood to greet them.

"Good afternoon Ranma Saotome. I am Seto Kaiba. It is a pleasure to meet you in person at last." He extended his hand and Ranma shook it. "I'm sure that you recognize Bill Leeman from yesterday." Ranma nodded at Bill who did the same. "The two here that it looks like you don't recognize are Professor Banner of the Duel Academy on a private island that I own, and Yugi Motou, who is the king of games." Seto introduced the other two to Ranma and Banner with a wave of his hand in their directions.

Yugi was a tall man, though not as tall as Seto or Kasumi. He looked like a kind person though Ranma found his hair style to be really interesting. It wasn't often even in Nerima that you saw someone with three different colors in their hair.

"It is nice to meet you Mr. Saotome. When Kaiba-san sent me the tape of your duel with the proctor and a written account of your history as a duelist I decided that I would join the two of you for lunch. I look forward to hearing more about you." Ranma smiled at Yugi and nodded his head in thanks.

"Yes, I must say that I'm really interested in you as well young man." This was said by a brown haired man who looked to be a few years older then Kaiba. He wore glasses and had the look of a fatherly figure that enjoyed what he did in life. Ranma couldn't help but start to like him just hearing the guy talk. Ranma's smile grew a little larger as he shook Banner's hand.

"Well as you all seem to know already," Ranma sent a mocking glare at Seto here. Yugi chuckled a bit as Seto smirked at Ranma. "My name is Ranma Saotome, and this here "he gestured with his free hand to Kasumi "is Kasumi Tendo. She is the person who taught me how to play Duel Monsters." The four men in front of Kasumi and Ranma nodded to her in greeting and shook her hand as well. After that was done Seto spoke up again.

"Now that we all know each other, how about we order our lunches." That suggestion was well received by the others who nodded their heads in agreement. They all sat down three each on their side of their booth. Bill, Seto, and Yugi were all sitting on one side of the booth as Banner, Kasumi, and Ranma took their side of the booth. Of course Ranma took Kasumi's vest for her before she sat down next to Professor Banner. After hanging her jacket on the corner of the booth where there was a few coat hooks, he sat down next to Kasumi.

Once they were all seated they picked up their menus and upon looking into it they were both shocked at the prices. This was noticed by Bill, who nudged Seto and discreetly pointed to the two.

"Tendo-san, Ranma-san, go ahead and order what you'd like. I invited you all here so the meal is on me. Don't worry about the high prices." Upon seeing the two nod at him, still a little shell-shocked from seeing the prices he continued. "I like this place because it is one of the few restaurants that I can go to without being ogled at by other customers. They also have good service and are nothing but polite to their customers." When he finished speaking Seto went back to his menu. Kasumi and Ranma followed his example.

A few minutes a waitress came by and took their orders. Since Kasumi asked him to the previous night, Ranma only ordered one item and a drink from the menu. Chicken cardon bleu did sound really good to him. Kasumi decided to get the same thing but with a side dish of garden salad. After everyone had of ordered their meals they continued talking.

"So Ranma," Yugi started catching Ranma's attention "I was just curious. Is there a specific reason why you chose to base your deck around Warrior type cards?" After a few seconds of thought over the question Ranma answered.

"I guess it's because I've always been a fighter myself. Ever since I was six years old, I've been training in the martial arts. Even though I was being taught by my father, who by the way is one of the most sadistic instructors you can ever meet, I've just loved the competition behind a good fight." The others nodded.

"Until a few months ago I was completely dedicated to martial arts, but a few months ago when I was actually going to get married to my fiancé I wound up in a huge fight instead. Apparently all of my rivals and the other girls who my father was stupid enough to engage me to also showed up at the wedding and wound up trashing it up." Ranma took a deep breath and stared up at the ceiling for a bit.

"Well that sounds quite unusual." Banner spoke up to break the silence. It also had the result of getting Ranma's attention back below the ceiling.

"That's the story of my life. I've always wound up getting in one weird situation after the other, mostly due to something stupid that my father did. Anyways, after the wedding day the fiancé that I was going to marry, who is Kasumi's youngest sister by the way, lost the small amount of trust that she had left in me. The girl used to hit me with a giant mallet each time she thought I was doing something wrong, or being perverted for that matter too. After the wedding though, things hit rock bottom. She no longer is even willing to look at me, and if she sees me talking to her own sisters then she yells at me for trying to seduce them." Everyone else other then Kasumi were staring stupidly at Ranma listening to what he was saying. They couldn't even think of anything to say.

"During the last few months though I've started to lose my taste for doing martial arts. That's because I've come to realize that just being an excellent fighter isn't going to get me anywhere in life."

"One of my family's martial arts style's codes has always to accept any challenge at any time no matter what it is." Ranma chuckled to himself here almost bitterly. "Following that has gotten me into several weird situations. Would you believe that there is such a thing as Martial Arts Tea Ceremony? That is just one of the weirder style's I wound up having to learn for a challenge." Banner chuckled imagining it. He was the only one of the four people who wasn't from Nerima who was able to stop being absolutely amazed hearing what was coming out of Ranma's mouth.

Now normally my father would try and keep me away from learning something like Duel Monsters, saying that it is useless for me to know it in order to be a martial artist, but I'm actually glad for that part of my family's bushido for a change. Since I was actually challenged to learn the game and to make it into the tournament, then in my father's eyes I had no choice but to do this." Banner lifted an eyebrow as he took a sip of his tea which arrived with everyone else's beverages as Ranma was telling his story.

"So are you admitting to us that you're only learning how to play Duel Monsters because it was a challenge?" Banner asked Ranma. His question brought the others out of their stupors since they were extremely interested in the question as well.

"While I admit that that was the case at first, but I honestly can't say that now." Ranma took a sip of his pop before he started again. "I've just had so much fun learning the game from Kasumi and playing it with others that even once the challenge is over tomorrow I'll keep learning and playing Duel Monsters. I don't know if I'll want to try and go pro, but I will definitely do my best to have fun while I'm doing what ever it is I decide to do with my life."

After Ranma talked about his reasons for playing Duel Monsters the booth was quiet for a few minutes as the others took Ranma's story in. That was until the food arrived and everyone started slowly eating and conversation started up again.

"Well then, that certainly was interesting Ranma. I would like to go back to talking about you as a duelist for a bit if you don't mind." Yugi was the one to speak up breaking the silence. "We now know your reason for choosing Warriors as your deck focus, but I'd like to hear some more about what you did to learn about the game. Maybe how you went about it." Ranma chuckled as he thought of his answer.

"I had no clue where to begin learning. It was actually Kasumi who came to me after she heard of the challenge. She offered to teach me what I'd need to know to get started."

"For the first week of the month Kasumi refused to allow me to go out and get any cards. She decided to make sure that I knew the rules first for the game before I went any further. When she wasn't teaching me about the rules, the phases of a turn, or the types of cards and how they are used, she was showing me popular or unorthodox cards that should be watched out for and how they worked. I still don't know about the vast majority of cards out there, but it was certainly a good start." The others nodded agreeing with Kasumi's choice.

"The second week I spent going out to anywhere that I could find that people duel each other to familiarize myself with the rules in action. I also learned about some other cards that I saw that Kasumi didn't wind up covering with me. It was actually seeing another player who was using warrior cards in action that firmed my decision to use warrior type monsters for myself.

After the first three days of that week, Kasumi and I started researching monsters of the Warrior type and I found myself planning what cards I was going to use before I even obtained my first card. Then over the next few days I bought several booster packs of the sets that had the cards that I wanted. I was lucky enough to get them without spending too much money. That was mostly due to the fact that nearly half of the cards I wanted already came with the starter set I bought. The last two weeks after that time was spent going back to those places that I saw those other people playing and challenging them so that I can get used to using actually playing. It didn't take long and from there I kept going. I must comment that I never expected that I would be sitting here with the four of you today."

"Well I'm glad that you're finding us to be good company even if so far we've just been talking about you." Seto smirked as he said that causing Ranma to become embarrassed and rub the back of his head. Ranma's reaction caused Banner and Yugi to burst out in laughter while Kasumi giggled behind her hand. Bill just leaned back and put on a smirk that was similar to Seto's.

From that point the conversation went on to other things. Another hour later at 1:30pm they finally decided to split up. On their way out Ranma was pulled off to the side by Banner and Yugi to talk about something, but Kasumi couldn't hear what it was. She did see however that it looked like Yugi gave him three cards before shaking Ranma's hand again and leaving. After saying farewell to Banner, Bill, and Seto, Kasumi and Ranma left.

OoOoO

"So how did things go?" Nabiki asked. It looked like she was waiting by the front door for a little while. Kasumi smiled at her sister.

"Things went along quite well Nabiki. And how was the home front while we were gone?" Nabiki smiled at Kasumi's question. She started to turn around to walk inside.

"Oh, things went fine. I managed to get tweedle dum and tweedle dee out of the house for a bit, so you don't have to worry about them asking why you're dressed up." Ranma smirked at Nabiki's nicknames for their fathers.

"And how did things go with the fiancé-rival front, Nabs?" Ranma asked as he and Kasumi made their way into the house after Nabiki.

"I actually didn't have to do much. Both of the restaurants were already swamped today so I didn't have to do anything to keep them busy. The Kuno's had a meeting that they had to attend to, and there was no sign of Ryoga. That about sums things up."

"Okay. Thanks Nabs." Ranma said smiling at her. "Now to get out of this suit and back into something comfortable." Nabiki laughed at that. "Speaking of clothing Nabiki, there's something that I've decided that I want to get to wear to the tournament tomorrow. Since it's a game, I might as well have fun with it." Nabiki raised her eyebrow at Ranma.

"Please do tell." Nabiki said.

"As soon as I get back from changing." Ranma said as he grinned at her.

OoOoO

Ranma was now sitting in his room after he'd of changed clothes. He'd of decided to sort through his deck and try to come up with any new ways that he could use his cards in the tournament. He was interrupted a few minutes into what he was doing by the sound of his bedroom's door being slammed open. He could only think of one person who still slammed that door open frequently.

"What do you think you're doing Baka-yarou?" Ranma sighed hearing Akane's voice. He was really getting tired of her.

"Nothing that involves you Akane. I have that tournament tomorrow that I'm playing in." Ranma turned around towards Akane as he spoke. "So if you could please leave me alone for at least tonight it would be greatly appreciated."

As Ranma was speaking, Akane was slowly turning even redder in the face then she was before. "How dare you try to brush me off you stupid asshole?" Ranma just stared at Akane as she went from red-alert to nuclear meltdown in three seconds. When she whipped out her shiny new mallet though, Ranma was quick to move to the side as the said mallet smashed through the chair that Ranma was previously sitting in.

"Calm down Akane." Ranma tried to calm her down even though he knew that it was futile.

"I'LL CALM DOWN WHEN YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD YOU PERVERT." Akane took another swing of her mallet. This time she swung it sideways like a baseball bat, trying to nail Ranma in the side. Ranma dodged this swing by jumping up and over Akane's head. Quite an impressive feat considering that there was only a two foot gap between the top of Akane's head and the ceiling.

"CALM DOWN AKANE, BEFORE I'M FORCED TO DEFEND MYSELF." Akane was shocked into stopping by the sheer volume of the yell. It only lasted for a few seconds however as she quickly became madder then ever before.

"**ARE YOU THREATENING TO HIT ME? I'LL TEACH YOU TO THREATEN ME YOU DAMNED PERVERT."** Every second word that she screeched at Ranma was punctuated by another swing of the mallet that when Ranma would dodge it, it would destroy something else in the room.

Ranma looked over towards the bedroom door when he saw some movement at the doorway. He saw that it was Kasumi and Nabiki standing there. After a second of thought, where Ranma subconsciously dodged another side swing of Akane's mallet by performing a back flip over top of it, he decided to stop Akane now instead of just letting her run out of steam as he was before. He didn't want Kasumi and Nabiki to wind up in Akane's path even by accident.

As Ranma started performing a return swing Ranma suddenly disappeared from Akane's sight. Akane didn't even realize that there was some added weight on top of her mallet. Ranma used the head of the mallet as a point to launch himself off of as he went for Akane who stumbled a little bit from the sudden movement of the mallet. Ranma took the opportunity to flip over Akane again and punch her once in the gut, and he had to do it hard in order to wind Akane. 'Damn Ryoga for teaching her the breaking point while I was on a training trip.' Then he took advantage of her doubled over state to access a pressure point on the back of Akane's neck that put her to sleep. Ranma grabbed Akane's shoulder before she could fall over and then lifted her up by the back of her shirt. He then walked out of his room and past Kasumi and Nabiki to put Akane on her bed. When he was finished Ranma turned around to Kasumi and Nabiki who now stood in Akane's doorway looking worried. He sighed to himself thinking about what it is that he knew he had to do now.

"Sorry about this Kasumi, Nabs."

"You don't need to apologize Ranma. It's not your fault." Nabiki spoke up. Ranma sighed and looked up at the ceiling as he did earlier that day.

"Sometimes I have to wonder Nabs. I consciously know that rage isn't my fault, but I have to wonder what would've happened with her if I never showed up. The three of us know that she needs therapy, but our fathers refuse to see it that way, so I believe that I will be taking Professor Banner's offer." Nabiki quirked her eyebrow while Kasumi looked surprised.

"What offer are you talking about Ranma?" Kasumi asked surprising Nabiki that Kasumi didn't know since she was with Ranma. When Kasumi asked her question Ranma looked back from the roof to the girls.

"In a week I'll be leaving Kasumi. Professor Banner has given me an offer to go to Duel Academy and join the first year class there as a member of the dormitory that he is in charge of; the Slipher Red dormitory. I told him that I would think about it and he will be waiting for my answer at the tournament tomorrow."

"Oh my, well as sad as the circumstances for you to take his offer, I'm happy for you." She spoke in a tone that said that she was sad as well.

"Thanks Kasumi, but you might be getting an offer too from Duel Academy." When Ranma said that, the two sisters were quite surprised. "Please don't tell the professor that I said anything about it, but when he and Yugi talked privately to me Professor Banner mentioned that he wanted to try and get you into the academy as well. I then mentioned that you were interested in being a nurse he said that the nurse at the academy was planning on looking for an assistant, and that he would give her a phone call tonight to see if she'd be willing to have you there." Kasumi was quite surprised to hear this.

"Okay, I won't say anything." She said in a daze. She certainly wasn't expecting this, and she didn't know what to think.

"Woah, Ranma. Did you say that you also got to meet Yugi Motou and one of the professor's from Duel Academy today?" When Ranma nodded she sighed. "You're one lucky bugger Saotome." She smirked when she thought of something else too. "It looks like karma is finally kicking in for you. And it just happens to be when you finally go into something else than martial arts." Ranma looked perplexed for a second before he quietly laughed to himself.

When he finished laughing, he looked back at Akane who was still asleep. "Maybe we should leave the room now before something else happens." He suggested to the older sisters. They looked around Ranma and grimaced just seeing her. Seeing their little sister in such a state of rage even a few minutes before, they were still scared.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Nabiki said as she started to head back down the hallway with Kasumi and Ranma following her.

"Oh Kasumi, I wouldn't worry about the offer until Banner actually asks you if he does." He looked over at her and smiled. "I think I'm going to go and sleep under the deck once I get my things together. I don't think that Akane will find me there if she wakes up before me." Ranma stopped since he'd of just reached his room. "I'll see you two tomorrow morning." Nabiki turned around and nodded and Kasumi gave a small bow to him.

"Good night Ranma." Kasumi said as she turned around to walk to her bedroom. She stopped however as she reached her room and went back to Ranma's trashed room. "Oh Ranma?" She asked as she poked her head in the destroyed room seeing Ranma pack his backpack with the stuff that was important to him. Miraculously, it was only furniture that suffered Akane's wrath.

"Yes Kasumi?" He spoke without even turning around from what he was doing.

"What time do you need to be up to get to the tournament?" Ranma gave a small smile to himself which wasn't noticed by Kasumi since his back was still turned.

"I have to be at the Kaiba Corps building at 10:00am to sign in. After that the tournament doesn't start until noon." Just as Ranma finished speaking, he was finished with packing all of his belongings into his backpack. He walked over to the window and stopped just before jumping out. "In case I accidentally sleep in, could you please wake me up at six o'clock, Kasumi?" Upon receiving a nod from her, Ranma smiled at her. "Thank you again Kasumi. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

With that Ranma was out of the window.

OoOoO

End Chapter 1

OoOoO

AN: Thank you for reading. I know that this chapter didn't go along the greatest, but I tried my best nonetheless. Hell, I even rewrote it three times, and it took me a whole day too, writing from 9:00am – 10:00pm. That's to show you how much trouble I had.

I know that many of you may be disgusted with how I portrayed Akane in this story, but I feel that it is justified in this story in the way that I had to give Ranma a good reason to decide to ditch the engagement with the Tendo's and to leave. I'm not really a lover of Akane if you all can tell anyways. If there was a way that I could, then I'd of erased Akane from the Manga itself. I just don't like her personality. For that matter, I don't like how any of the fiancés are at all. I say that the only two female characters that would be good for Ranma in the Manga are Kasumi and Nabiki.

Anyways, the next chapter is going to be at least the first round of the tournament. I will leave it to your imaginations how far Ranma will get, but there will be a familiar face in the tournament who will be the powerhouse of the whole thing.

In case you're wondering, the three cards that Yugi gave Ranma will not be used in the tournament. Ranma received them after he'd of already registered his deck for the tournament.

Now all I have to say is Adios for the time being, and I thank all of you who reviewed, no matter how many of you there were. I'll see you all later.

Bubye.


	3. Ch 2: The Tournament Starts

OoOoO

The Wild Horse Duels! – A Ranma ½ and Yu-gi-oh GX crossover.

Chapter Two: The 2006 Tokyo Duel Monsters Professionals Test begins.

Written by: Cloud1239999

OoOoO

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ or Yu-Gi-Oh GX in any name shape or form. The closest thing to it is that I have several Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Gameboy games that I enjoy playing. The deck that Ranma uses however is the deck that I really use for myself in the 'Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters: World Championship 2006' game. Ranma's deck will change a bit too as my deck does in that game.

OoOoO

The morning of the Pro test tournament. It was the day that Ranma was looking forward to for the last several days, especially after his meeting with Seto Kaiba.

Kasumi had of just woken up to her alarm clock at 6:00am. She stretched before getting up and into a house coat that she kept on the inside of her door. "So today is the day." She spoke to herself as she grabbed the clothes that she would be changing into.

Ranma was not the only one looking forward to the tournament in the Tendo home. Kasumi was also excited for this day. She was looking forward to watching Ranma play in the tournament.

When Kasumi left her bedroom, she went to the bathroom to fill the furrow but found that it was already filled by someone. 'Well you're excited today aren't you Ranma?' She thought to herself as she unrobed and had a quick bath.

When she was finished she got dressed and left the furrow to start cooking breakfast for Ranma and herself.

When she entered the main living area she saw Ranma sitting at the table with his cards spread out on the table. He was so focused on checking over his cards that he never noticed her enter.

"Good morning Ranma." Kasumi greeted him with a smile. Ranma jumped a bit before looking at Kasumi and blinking a few times in surprise. He then shook his head for a second before returning her greeting.

"Good morning Kasumi, are you having a good day so far?" She smiled at his greeting and then giggled when Ranma went straight back to looking over his cards, occasionally holding up a few together to have a visual as he thought about how the cards could work together. After a few seconds of watching Ranma she spoke up again.

"I am doing really well Ranma. I thank you for filling up the furrow for me. It was a pleasant surprise."

Ranma turned back to smile at her again while rubbing the back of his head again with his eyes closed.

"You're welcome Kasumi. I wound up waking early at five o'clock so I did a few kata and decided to prepare the bath for everyone one instead of waiting around." It seemed that Ranma was finished going over his deck at the time since he gathered the cards back together and put them back onto his deck holder which he wore on the waist band of his black silk pants.

When he was finished that he stood up and followed Kasumi into the kitchen where he leaned back against the door frame. As she was pulling out the rice cooker Ranma decided to volunteer to help her in the kitchen.

"Would you like some help Kasumi?" Kasumi stood up from under the counter with the rice cooker and plugged it in.

"No thank you Ranma." Ranma shrugged his shoulders and was about to exit back into the living room when Kasumi called him back. "Actually Ranma, could you please prepare the tea for us."

"Alright, I guess I should also put the coffee on for Nabs. I'm not sure if you've noticed or not, but she is up too. When I saw her she seemed to be waiting for the bath, so I'm guessing that's where she is now." Kasumi blinked in surprise at the fact that Nabiki was actually up and about this early in the morning.

"Oh." After a silent second where she actually forgot to continue cooking she shook her head and got back to work.

A few minutes later another body entered the kitchen that seemed to be amongst the dead rather than the living. That only lasted another two minutes until she took her first sip of the coffee that Ranma handed her. Nabiki was immediately alert of her surroundings and was surprised to see that it was Ranma who handed her the coffee.

"Thanks Ranma. The coffee is good today." Ranma smiled at her and nodded before going back to preparing tea. 'How can he be so perky this early in the morning?' She wondered to herself. 'Oh yeah, the tournament is in a couple hours.' Nabiki looked at her watch to see that it was only 6:30. 'Okay, he has plenty of time if we leave within the next hour.'

"How do you plan on getting there, Ranma?" Nabiki asked.

"The usual way. I'm just going to roof hop over to the train station and catch the eight o'clock train to central Tokyo. I should still be there with more than a half hour to spare if I take that train." Nabiki rolled her eyes already knowing that that was how Ranma gets there.

"What about us normal people, Ranma? Kasumi and I can't roof hop like you can." Ranma smiled at Nabiki's sarcastic tone. Ranma decided to take a nip at her as well.

"I'm surprised in you Nabs. I expected you to have known that Kasumi was going to leave a little bit later then I was since she's going to be bringing lunch, and the tournament doesn't start until two hours after I have to be there." Ranma said that in a singsong voice.

It took a few seconds for her to realize that Ranma made his first verbal strike against her. She smirked a bit.

"You really are in a good mood this morning aren't you?" She decided that since it was Ranma's first decent verbal strike on her she would let him get away with it.

Ranma turned around wearing a big grin. "And why pray-tell wouldn't I be?" Nabiki chuckled at the question.

After a second's thought she just chose to admit defeat this time since it was a big day for Ranma.

"Alright, alright. You win this time Ranma." He grinned again at this and turned around. "Just don't expect our next vocal joust to go so well." She smirked herself when she heard him gulp in reply to her statement.

"You two have excellent timing." Kasumi spoke as she turned around with the rice cooker and some plates with some ham, eggs, and bacon on a tray. "I hope you like this recipe. I decided to try something new this morning." Ranma sniffed the air as he grabbed the tea set and Nabiki's pot of coffee along with a pad to put the pot on.

"It smells really good. Then again, everything you cook does." Ranma spoke.

"You've only discovered this now Saotome?" That earned her an indignant 'Hey!' "Now we're even Ranma." She smiled and patted Ranma's cheek before leaving the kitchen after Kasumi, who'd of already walked over to the table.

Ranma stood there for a few seconds recovering from the well-placed jab. He shook his head. "Damn, that's a good one considering that it was me it was aimed at."

OoOoO

At 9:30 Ranma stood back out in front of the Kaiba Corps building where the tournament was about to take place. He hadn't of taken a real look before, but from the outside the building looked much like a football stadium would with a dome on the top. He whistled while staring what was virtually straight up. The building was quite tall. Ranma hoped that the arena that the dome covered was a top-floor arena, otherwise he would be absolutely puzzled over why they'd need an arena that tall for the tournament. He continued to stare up at the building when he was interrupted.

"Good morning Ranma." Ranma turned around and saw that the person talking to him was Professor Banner. Ranma smiled at the man and waved as the professor walked up to Ranma.

"Good morning Professor. I was just admiring the building." Ranma went back to staring up at it. "I can't help but wonder if the Arena is right underneath that dome up there on the roof or if it's somewhere else."

"Oh, the dueling arena is right underneath that dome Ranma, but it actually comes down taking up most of the top three floors of the building, and the place will probably be packed today. This is a big event after all. The fact that word got out of a new duelist making the cut into the sixteen competitors has grabbed a lot of people's attentions." Ranma raised an eyebrow in surprise that he was attracting so much attention by being in the tournament. "I must warn you though that a lot of these people are agents for promising duelists. If you perform well today you may wind up with several of these people trying to sign you up with contracts."

Ranma chuckled for a second to himself before shaking his head.

"I'm not interested in signing up for anything right now. Well, except that I've decided that I would like to go to Duel Academy Professor Banner." Ranma smiled at Banner.

"Ah, that is good. After the tournament I'll talk to you more and I'll have some registration forms ready for you. It'll have to wait until then though since you should be getting inside to sign in."

"Alright then, sir. I'll talk to you after I'm finished." Ranma said that as he started to move to cross the street and enter the building.

"Ah yes, I nearly forgot Ranma." Ranma turned around when he heard Banner speak up again. "I nearly forgot to ask. Are you expecting anybody to arrive that will be watching you?"

"Yeah, I am. My friend Kasumi and her younger sister Nabiki will be coming to watch me. They won't be here for another hour if they leave at the time they told me they will though." Banner nodded when Ranma said that.

"Alright then, Ranma. I'll let Kaiba-san know and he'll probably get Leeman-san to watch out for them. Each contestant gets a booth close to the arena itself where their family and friends could watch their matches from up close." Ranma nodded and turned to walk away again pulling the small day pack he had into a more comfortable position on his back.

"Thanks Professor Banner. I'll see you later."

When Banner gave his farewell, Ranma walked into the building.

OoOoO

Just before noon, Kasumi and Nabiki had of finally arrived at the Kaiba Corps building where they now stood a short distance from the line that was waiting to get in. They were patiently waiting before they heard a voice that Kasumi recognized from the other day.

"Ah, there you are Kasumi." She looked over to her left to see Bill Leeman standing a few people away from her.

"Good morning Leeman-san." Kasumi greeted Kasumi with a smile. Bill smiled back to her as he worked his way through the last few people on his way to them.

When he reached them he looked over to Nabiki and smiled at her. "I take it that you're Nabiki?" When Nabiki nodded Bill nodded to her and spoke to Kasumi again. "Ranma said that you two would be coming. I forgot to mention this to Ranma the other day, but the competitor's each get a private booth for any close acquaintances that they were expecting to show up." Nabiki liked the sounds of that. "If you two will follow me, I will take you right up to your booth." As he spoke he turned around and quickly led the girls back towards the entrance.

OoOoO

"Come on Kasumi." Nabiki shouted back at her sister. They were now running through the halls of the Kaiba Corps building. They were only another minute away from their booth, but they'd of just learned that the tournament was about to start and that Ranma had the first match. They continued running for another few seconds before Bill stopped them in front of a door labeled "Private Booth #09".

"Here we are ladies, I hope you enjoy watching the tournament, but if you'll excuse me now I have to get back to Kaiba-taichou's booth." Bill spoke as he stepped aside to let the two ladies, who were still breathing hard, into the booth.

"Thank you Leeman-san." Kasumi gave a slight bow with her words as she walked past the man and into the room.

"Yeah, thanks." Nabiki mimicked Kasumi's polite bow as she followed her older sister.

"You're welcome." On that note Bill shut the door as he left.

Looking to the front of the booth Kasumi and Nabiki saw that there were two comfortable seats at the front end of the booth with a small table in between them. The chairs were facing forward to where they could see through a window and down a short distance to the arena. The table also had a small cooler underneath it with a few beverages and the table had a tray on it with some snack foods. They actually had a very good spot since they were right by the center of the arena on the right side. Nabiki looked around their booth and smiled to herself. She could get used to something like this if Ranma really did go pro.

Kasumi and Nabiki were pulled out of their admiration of the tiny little booth when a man in a black business suit called out through a microphone for the audience's attention.

OoOoO

Ranma now stood in a room underneath the arena with the fifteen other competitors. He was looking around at the others. They all looked tough and or smart in one way or another. Now that he was actually seeing who he would be dueling against, he couldn't help but be even more excited.

The only thing that puzzled Ranma though was that there was one duelist that the others kept looking at nervously. Ranma assumed that this person already had a really big reputation in competitive dueling. He was correct though nobody was going to tell Ranma that at the time.

The person was the same age as Ranma and stood about a head taller then him. He had a fair amount of greenish-blue hair which was kept to the side of his face and ran down just past the base of his neck. Ranma couldn't see his eyes since he was just looking forward with an air of indifference about him. He wore a long white jacket with a tail and high collar that had a dark blue band that went all the way around the jacket just below the collar with a lighter blue bordering it. There was another blue pattern on the front of the jacket and a blue strip going around the sleeves. He also wore navy blue jeans and black shoes. Ranma couldn't help but get vibes from the guy. Ranma could tell that the guy had a strong spirit just by looking at him.

Ranma smirked to himself as he turned back to face forward. Ranma couldn't help but hope to face the guy during the tournament. Sure, he'd lose that match. He was sure of that, but Ranma intended to give him hell though before he went down. Deciding to make his presence known to the other competitor he stepped forward from his spot and up to the other duelist.

"Hi, the name's Ranma Saotome, though for this little tournament I'm going by the name of General Wild Horse. May I have the pleasure of your name?" Ranma extended his hand to the other boy who had of turned to face Ranma.

OoOoO

Zane Truesdale was bored. When he entered the room he'd of checked out his competition and was not impressed. The other people in the room all looked like good duelists, but just by glancing over all of them he could tell that none of them were there for what he considered to be the right reasons to play Duel Monsters. As he got to his position he quietly sighed to himself before facing forward. As he thought over the looks of the people he just observed, he couldn't help but realize that one person was missing at that time. There were only fourteen other competitors in the room. He looked around and counted again in case he was wrong, but sure enough there was one person missing. There were only ten more minutes left until the start of the tournament.

'Oh well.' He thought to himself. 'I guess that'll be one less person, though I'm curious as to who it is that will be missing out.'

It was another two minutes before the door in the back of the room banged open and there stood a man who was breathing hard. The man had messy black hair and an embarrassed look on his face; he was rubbing the back of his head nervously while wearing a lopsided grin. Zane took another look at the boy who he guessed to be just a little younger than he was. He wore what looked to be a blood red Chinese-style silk shirt with three wooden clasps along with black pants and black slippers. The two things about his look that caught Zane's attention for a second though were the mask that he wore to cover the area around his blue eyes, it was the type of mask that a guy would wear to a masquerade ball, and a large red cape with yellow trimming. When the guy turned around to close the door Zane saw what looked like a picture of a rearing horse emblazoned in the center of the cloak with a golden colored thread.

"Sorry about that, I just got lost." The boy spoke as he continued trying to pull the door out of the wall where it got stuck from the force that it was opened with.

Zane turned back to looking forwards and up a little bit waiting for the platform they were all standing on now to rise up through the floor and into the arena. He wore a small amused smile at the black-haired boy's antics.

Zane was brought out of his musings by the boy's voice. He'd of never noticed the boy when he stepped up next to him.

"Hi, the name's Ranma Saotome, though for this little tournament I'm going by the name of General Wild Horse. May I have the pleasure of your name?"

Zane's smile came back to his face as he turned to face the boy he now knew as Ranma. He was surprised that Ranma wasn't avoiding him like the other competitors were. The boy obviously didn't know who he was talking to. It was actually kind of nice to meet someone who didn't know who he was due to his reputation.

"The name is Zane Truesdale." He introduced himself while shaking the boy's offered hand.

"Just by looking at you I can tell that you're a strong person Zane." Ranma's statement surprised Zane a little bit. Zane watched as Ranma glanced left and right like he was making sure that the others weren't listening in. He then leaned towards Zane before speaking in a whisper. "I can tell that unlike the others, you have a really strong spirit. I hope to duel you during the tournament. I don't think that anyone else will be that much fun to duel."

Zane quirked an eyebrow when Ranma was finished. He was surprised over what Ranma said. As Ranma walked back to his previous position Zane watched him go. When Ranma turned to face forward again and smiled at him, Zane knew that he might have just found a duelist that he could respect. Zane smirked to himself as he went back to facing forward. Like Ranma, Zane was now hoping that they would meet in the tournament.

A few minutes later they heard the booming voice of someone talking over a microphone as the platform they were on started rising while the roof above their heads opened.

OoOoO

"**Greetings one and all, and welcome to the '2006 Tokyo Duel Monsters Professionals Test'. The tournament will be starting momentarily, but first I would like to welcome our sixteen contenders." **When the man finished that statement he pointed towards the center of the arena where some smoke started to billow out of some machines set up around the perimeter of the arena. The center of the arena opened up to reveal another platform rising up and out of the ground to reveal sixteen people of various sizes, builds, and age standing in a circle facing outwards. The audience roared seeing the contenders.

"Hey, where's Ranma?" Nabiki asked in her booth.

This caused Kasumi to giggle and point him out to Nabiki. "I believe he's the one in the red cape that's facing away from us. I can't think of a reason for any of the other duelists to be wearing a cape with a horse emblazoned on the back." Nabiki blinked for a second taking in what she could see of Ranma. After a second she got an exasperated look on his face.

"Of course he has to go with something theatrical." She said that as she leaned forward to rest her elbows on the edge of their booth, resting her chin on her hands.

"**Now if all of the contestants could step into the room over there" **The announcer pointed over to a doorway that was actually just under the booth that Kasumi and Nabiki were in **"except for General Wild Horse and Morino Morisato, then we can start the first match."**

As they walked their separate ways Ranma and Zane took a glance at each other. Zane nodded to Ranma to silently wish him luck. Ranma nodded back.

"**Alright people our starting match is a real treat for all of you diehard dueling fans." **The announcer spoke again as Morino and Ranma took their positions. **"This duel is a classic example of the old versus the new. Out of the sixteen competitors our tenth-rank duelist, Morino Morisato is an experienced duelist of several years who is only now taking the pro test to rise through the ranks."** The audience cheered. Many people knew of him so he was already a pretty hot item among duelists who hadn't of taken the pro test yet. The announcer continued when the audience died down.

"**And over here in the other corner is a new duelist who only recently joined the dueling community. With only a month of experience under his belt and a daring attitude to match his sharp wit, General Wild Horse has cut his way into the fourteenth rank of the competitors."** A quiet murmur spread through the audience as they heard the length of time that the duelist had of been dueling.

"So I'm being pitted against an inexperienced kid for my first match?" Spoke Ranma's opponent. He was a tall man with shaggy brown hair who wore a white dress shirt and black jeans, nothing special. "This match will be over in no time. I didn't come to face off against a kid playing games, I came to go pro."

Ranma shook his head and smirked at the man irritating him. "You know, I've been going through challenges all of my life and every time I faced off against someone who looked down on me like this I've always found a way to turn out on top. I guess I'll start now."

"**_Let's Duel!" _**They both shouted at the same time and activated their duel disks. A coin was tossed by the announcer.

"**And Monino Morisato has the first turn." **The announcer raised his arm and looked between the two duelists. **"Are the duelists ready?" **Upon receiving their nods he dropped his arm. **"Begin!"**

As Ranma drew his first five cards he couldn't help but feel a weird tingle as the holographic devices built into the arena started up. He looked over the five cards in his hand before smiling. It looked to him like he had a fairly strong starting hand. The smile didn't go unnoticed by Ranma's opponent, and he chose to speak out on it.

"Wipe that smile off of your face boy. Despite whatever you may have in your hand, it will not help you." As he spoke Morino drew his first card.

"To start off the match, I set a monster in defense mode." He put a card onto his duel disk and a holograph of a facedown card appeared on his side of the field. The card had its side facing Ranma. "And then I set one more card face down." The man did as he said and one more card appeared face down behind the first one. "Now I play the field spell card, 'Mystic Plasma Zone'." A small compartment opened on the side of his duel disk which he threw one more card into before it closed.

The visual effect that this card had on the arena was immediate. The sky above the open roofed arena immediately clouded over and lightning bolts struck the ground all around for a few seconds. When the lightning died down the arena looked like it was a wasteland, or a desert. The storm clouds remained above their heads, with the occasional flash of lightning in the clouds. Ranma smiled liking this effect.

"This field card gives all Dark type monsters that I play an additional five hundred attack points in exchange for taking away four hundred defense points." Ranma nodded in recognition of what he said. "Now do you want to know why I say that you have no chance boy?" Ranma gave no outward signs to an answer but Morino continued anyways with a smirk on his face. "I'll give my answer to you in one word boy, and that word is 'Experience'. I've been dueling for seven years now, ever since the second set of cards was released. Through the years I've played I've been constantly picking cards to improve my deck, and now I have constructed a deck that will take me to fame! There is nothing you can do to stop me, boy."

When he finished speaking he looked at Ranma's face to see that he wore a bored look.

"Are you done yet?" Ranma asked. Upon receiving Morino's nod, Ranma drew a card. "I came here to play, not to listen to someone rant about how much better they think they are then I am."

Up in the booth, Nabiki smirked hearing Ranma speak. 'He's reminding of the way he is sometimes when he fights.'

"Now that it's my turn I start off my turn by playing a handy magic card called 'Spell Absorption'." When Ranma put his card into a magic card slot on his duel disk a large stone hands burst out of the virtual landscape behind him. It went up to a height that was twice as high as Ranma was tall. In the center of the hand a ball of swirling energy appeared.

"This handy magic card makes it so that from this point on until this card is destroyed I gain five hundred life points each time that a magic card is played by either one of us." Ranma smirked again. He could tell that his opponent didn't like what that meant.

"Now I'll play my next card, Pot of Greed." Ranma raised his hand to his right where, sure enough, the pot appeared for a few seconds before dissolving and having the sparkles that the card dissolved into move over and into the swirling ball of energy that was his other magic card. After that was done, Ranma continued. "As I'm sure you know this card allows me to draw two more cards from my deck, and since I have my 'Spell Absorption' card out on the field I also gain five hundred life points." As Ranma drew his two cards the billboard over the arena that showed the competitor's names and their life points showed Ranma's life points going up from 4000 to 4500.

"Now for the next move, I'd like to summon a great friend of mine to the field. I'd like to introduce to you the 'Marauding Captain' in attack mode." Ranma put his card on the duel disk and the Marauding appeared in front of Ranma. "Now due to his special effect I get to special summon a level four or lower monster to the field, and I choose to summon the 'Command Knight' in attack mode." After placing the second monster card on his duel disk Ranma pointed at his opponent as he continued talking. "Now you may wonder why I chose to play two 'weak' monsters with only 1200 attack points. The first reason is that my Command Knight card has the handy effect of giving all warrior type monsters on my side of the field an additional 400 attack points. This raises their attack to 1600. The next part is that as long as Marauding Captain is on the field, you cannot attack any monsters other than him.

"Now I attack your facedown monster with Marauding Captain." When Ranma announced this, his monster dashed toward the set monster. As he approached it the card flipped over to reveal an unusual brown monster that had wings and held a weird pole-type weapon. Which a holographic projector showed to the duelists that it originally had 1700 defense points, which was reduced to 1300 because of the field spells effect. It also showed that the Marauding Captain still had its 1600 attack points. The monster was cut into three pieces by the Marauding Captain's swords. The captain then jumped backwards to his previous position. Ranma was about to call out his next attack when his opponent interrupted him.

"Just wait one second there boy. Since you just destroyed my 'Kryuel in battle, I get to flip a coin and call either heads or tails." Ranma waited patiently for Morino to continue. "If I call correctly then I get to destroy one monster on your side of the field." Ranma looked noticeably nervous at this. The man smirked, seeing Ranma's nervousness.

"I call heads!" The man shouted as a giant holographic coin appeared where the Kryuel was and flipped into the air. After a few seconds of flipping at the top of its arc it came down onto the ground and showed that it was tails that it landed on. Ranma let out a sigh of relief as Morino quietly cursed his luck. He'd of been depending on destroying the Command Knight with that effect.

Ranma's smirk returned to his face as he pointed at Morino again. "Alright then, now that the distraction has been dealt with I continue my attack by attacking you directly with my Command Knight." The said monster pulled its sword out of its sheath at this point and leaped into the air. A second later it came down on Morino with a slash that went right through him. The Command Knight then quickly re-sheathed its sword and backpedaled to its original spot to the side and slightly behind of the Marauding Captain, who now wore a smirk eerily similar to the one that Ranma was currently wearing. The life point counter for Ranma's opponent dropped down from 4000 to 2400.

"I can see why Ranma referred to that Marauding Captain card as a good friend of his." Nabiki spoke from her spot next to Kasumi. "They both have the same taunting smirk that drives others crazy." Kasumi giggled behind her hand at that comment.

"Now that I'm done attacking, I set two cards and end my turn." As Ranma spoke he set his cards and the two cards appeared facedown on his field. Ranma still had two cards in his hand while his opponent had four. The audience was cheering for Ranma for a turn well played.

"Now it's my turn boy, and you're in for a doozey." Morino drew his card and looked at it before smirking and facing it towards Ranma. "I start this turn out by summoning my monster, the 'Archfiend Soldier'." He placed the card on his duel disk and a tall humanoid appeared on the field wielding a wicked looking sword. The holograph generator for the arena brought up a display to show Ranma that the monster had 1900 attack points. The attack counter then went up to 2400 attack points. Ranma frowned at that.

"I see that you weren't expecting me to be able to summon a monster this powerful without any sacrifices. Now for underestimating me,"

"Hold it right there." Ranma called out before Morino could continue. "Since I know that it would be a bad thing for me if you attacked now, I am going to play a trap card. I play 'Threatening Roar'."

When Ranma finished speaking the set card directly in front of him rose up to show the trap card which looked like it had some horned monster roaring at a monster opposite of it. A second later the Marauding took a deep breath before letting out a loud roar which made it look like the 'Archfiend Soldier' was startled for a second.

"This trap card makes it so that you cannot declare an attack this turn, saving me from having my Marauding Captain destroyed by your soldier." As Ranma finished speaking, Morino could be seen grinding his teeth.

"Then I guess all I can do is to set another card and end my turn." Another facedown appeared in front of Morino making his total two.

Ranma raised an eyebrow seeing the next card he drew and then he smirked again.

"Ah yes, here's a card that I've been waiting for." Ranma looked up from his card before extending his hand out to show his opponent just what card he was talking about. "I play the magic card, 'The A Forces'." When Ranma placed his card on the field a large mass of shadow's appeared behind Ranma that faded to show several warrior type monsters, who gave a large shout of their own. The sight of all of the monsters caused Morisato to take a step back in surprise. Ranma smirked seeing this.

"This card is one of the reasons that I chose to go along with the name of 'General Wild Horse'. This is a continuous spell card that increases the attack of all warrior-type monsters on my side of the field by 200 points for each face-up warrior-type and spellcaster-type monster on my side of the field. Since there are two warriors on my side of the field, this card increases the attack of both my Marauding Captain, and my Command Knight by 400 attack points to a total of 2000, and due to my 'Spell Absorption' card I gain another five hundred life points."

The arena then displayed that Ranma's life points were going up from 4500 to 5000.

"However I'm not going to end it there." Ranma continued. "I still have another monster that I want to add to the field, but first I have to get it into my hand." This statement confused not only Morino, but many in the audience as well. Seeing the look, Ranma got a glint in his eyes as he continued. "Now I play a magic card that will fish out my wanted monster for me." He raised the single spell card skywards. "I play the magic card, 'Reinforcement of the Army'." When Ranma slapped the card on the field the small army of monsters behind Ranma started to spread as Ranma looked through his deck and grabbed a certain card before putting the deck back in the duel disk for it to shuffle.

"'Reinforcement of the Army' allows me to add one level four or lower warrior-type monster from my deck to my hand, but then the deck gets shuffled. The monster I picked to pull out with my card's effect is another of my favorite monsters." Ranma swept his free hand back towards the splitting army behind him. Out of the army came three goblins wearing hardhats and wielding clubs. They disappeared into a beam of light that went to the card that Ranma was adding to his hand. "I chose to bring forth to my hand the 'Goblin Attack Force'. And as my magic card resolves I get another 500 points added to my life points."

The display now showed Ranma's life points going up to 5500. Morino did not like it, but he had to admit that for a complete novice, Ranma was running a solid strategy.

"Now I summon my monster, the 'Goblin Attack force' in attack mode." The three goblins from before now reappeared in another burst of light. "Now due to the effects of both Command Knight, and 'The A Forces' my 'Goblin attack force gains a total attack boost of 1000 points bringing his attack up to 3300 points." Sure enough the display agreed with Ranma by showing that exact attack value for his monsters. "Oh, and since I put another warrior-type monster on the field, my Command Knight and Marauding Captain gain another 200 attack points putting the both of them up to 2200 attack points."

Now Morisato was sweating bullets, being stared at by the three powerful monsters.

"Just think, you were calling them weak not even five minutes ago." Ranma gave what could be associated as a predatory grin before he continued. "Now let me show you whose monster is the weak one. Go, Goblin Attack Force. Take down his Archfiend soldier."

"Not so fast sonny. I have my own card to stall for some time. I activate my 'Waboku' trap card. This baby negates the attack of all of your monsters this turn by cancelling the effects that would normally happen when your monsters go into battle with mine. That means no damage, and that also means that my Archfiend Soldier survives this turn." The three goblins continued their charge before they hit a swirling barrier of energy. They then fell back to their position next to the Marauding Captain. "How do you like them apples?"

"Not bad old-timer." Ranma grinned. "The fact of the matter still remains that I still have a monster that is way stronger then your Archfiend Soldier. I end my turn since I have nothing else to play right now." As Ranma said that he ended his turn, his 'Goblin Attack Force' switched to defense mode. The stat display came up to show that Ranma's monster had 0 defense points.

Ranma has one card in his hand and Morino has three still.

"Okay then." Morino drew his card as he spoke and a predatory grin to match Ranma's earlier one appeared on his face. "Now I just got a card that I've been waiting for. You may think that my Archfiend Soldier had a lot of attack points, but that's nothing compared to the card that I'm playing now."

"I sacrifice my Archfiend Soldier" as Morino spoke his Archfiend on the field shattered into pieces "In order to summon the best monster in my deck. Now let me introduce you to the 'Dark Ruler Ha Des'." Morino took a second to laugh in what was surprisingly the same manner that the monster he'd of just summoned was laughing.

"This is one cruel royal figure who takes squat from his underlings. With Mystic Plasma Zone his attack is boosted from his original 2450, all the way up to 2950. And to add more bang for to his buck, I play the equip spell card known as 'Gravity Axe – Grarl'. This sweet axe gives my 'Dark Ruler Ha Des' an additional 500 attack points, and that's not all. This card also makes it so that you cannot change the battle position of your monsters on the field except through the effect of a card."

"My 'Dark Ruler Ha Des now has 3450 attack points, that's 150 more then your 'Goblin Attack Force'." Morino smirked again with that statement. "I would get rid of it now, but as you said yourself earlier. I have to destroy that pesky Marauding Captain first. Go ahead Ha Des, do your thing by using your 'Demonic Laugh' attack." At this point 'Dark Ruler Ha Des, who was holding a large axe, began to laugh. The laughter quickly rose in pitch and caused visible sound waves that hit Ranma's 'Marauding Captain causing it to explode into shards, and for the life point counter to show up with Ranma's life points depleting from 5500 to 4250.

Ranma now looked nervous again, and even the spectators thought that it was for a very good reason. Ranma may have over 4000 life points still, but it was now just a matter of time until Ranma was out of monsters on the field to defend those life points with. Ranma looked at the magic card in his hand and knew that he needed to have another specific card in order to summon it. If at this point then Ranma drew the card that he needed then he believed that he was sure to win this duel. Ranma looked at his deck, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I end my turn after that attack boy, so go ahead and draw your doom." Morisato was really confident in himself at this moment.

That confidence was wiped away though, to be replaced with shock as Ranma drew his next card. Ranma's worried look had of evaporated as soon as he drew his card and he was now looking back at Morisato with determination in his eyes.

"As you wish Morisato-san." The fact that Ranma said Morisato's name for the first time in the duel was a surprise for Morisato as well as some of the member's of the audience. "I have drawn doom this turn, but unfortunately for you, it seems that the doom I drew belongs to you." Ranma's smirk came back. It accompanied by the determined look in his eyes, and the costume he was wearing instantly brought hearts to the eyes of several young females in the audience.

"I play the monster card, 'Gearfried the Iron Knight'. Now I know that this guy doesn't have that much to offer on his own, his armor does restrict a lot of his movement and takes a fair bit of strength to move at all in, but that is where my magic card comes into play." When he finished speaking he showed the only card in his hand to Morisato.

"I play the magic card 'Release Restraint'." As soon as Ranma said the name of the magic card the 'Gearfried the Iron Knight' on the field exploded in a ball of light. Pieces of Gearfried's armor could be seen flying everywhere.

"This magic card takes a 'Gearfried the Iron Knight' on the field and removes the limits on him by destroying his armor. This results in the special summoning from either my hand or my deck of one of the best warrior monsters out there." As Ranma finished speaking, the ball of light finally disappeared in order to reveal a tall man with long black and silver hair standing there in only pants. He carried a broadsword that was about six feet long. "Give a big round of applause for 'Gearfried the Swordmaster'!" When Ranma said that, the audience did just as he said. Ranma's life point also appeared showing that his life points went up from 4250 to 4750 due to his magic card.

"Now due to my Command Knight, my Gearfried the Swordsmaster gets an additional attack bonus of 400, boosting him up to 3000 attack points. That isn't all though. Due to the effects of 'The A Forces', and that including Gearfried there are three monsters on my side of the field which gives Gearfried 600 more attack points. That's a grand total of 3600 attack points." Ranma rubbed his forehead to get rid of some of the sweat that he had before continuing.

"I guess this makes it my turn to have a monster with 150 attack points more then your strongest on the field." Ranma grinned at that. "Now, go ahead and attack Gearfried, destroy 'Dark Ruler Ha Des', and bring his reign of tyranny to an end."

"Nice try, kid." Morino was smirking now. He was ready for such an instant. "I activate a trap card that'll keep this fight in my favor." He spread his free hand to the side where one of his trap cards rose up. "I activate the trap card, 'Bark of the Dark Ruler'. Now with this card I can pay life points in any multiple of one hundred, and my 'Bark of the Dark Ruler' card will take my sacrificed life points and convert them into attack points for one fiend type monster on my side of the field. I use this effect to sacrifice 1000 of my life points." As Gearfried was approaching, Ha Des began laughing again. "That becomes an additional 1000 attack points for my 'Dark Ruler Ha Des'."

Morino's life point meter showed up again showing his life points going down from 2400 to 1400.

"Now say good bye to your precious monster." Morisato was expecting to a pained or frustrating face on Ranma, but all he got was another smirk.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I was prepared for something like this as well." Morisato looked back at Ranma's side of the field to see that there was still one of the face-down cards that Ranma had put down on his first turn.

"No way." Morisato spoke up in disbelief.

"That's correct. It seems that you forgot that I also have a trap card myself." Ranma swung his free hand towards the card that was slightly to his left. "I activate MY trap card, 'Blast with Chain'!" When Ranma announced the trap, a small rocket appeared that was attached to Gearfried's sword by a chain. At the moment, Gearfried and Ha Des were moving in extremely slow motion to give time for something else to happen if it needed to.

"This trap card has two effects, the second of which is really good mind you, but I want to use its primary effect in this case. After activation 'Blast with Chain' turns into an equip card, going onto a monster of my choice and giving it an additional 500 attack points."

"You've got serious issues with your math boy, 500 attack points isn't going to save your monster." Morino was quick to point out.

"I'm sorry, but my math is not what is being used here to defeat your 'Dark Ruler Ha Des'. Gearfried isn't one of the strongest known warrior-type monsters because it has 2600 Attack points. No, what makes my 'Gearfried the Swordsmaster' one of the strongest warriors around is its special ability. You see old man, whenever 'Gearfried the Swordsmaster' is given an equip card his effect automatically activates. What it does for me is to allow Gearfried to immediately destroy one monster on your side of the field no matter how strong it is. So say goodbye to Ha Des. He's biting the dust. Use your 'Supersonic slice' technique Gearfried!"

Even in the current slow motion between the two monsters Gearfried suddenly blurred and 'Dark Ruler Ha Des' was sliced into chunks that blasted apart.

"Oh, I forgot to mention that since you now have no monsters to defend your life points with, Gearfried's attack normal attack is going straight to you for a painful 4100 damage."

A second later, the rest of the events between the monsters went back to normal speed where Gearfried moved past the still dissipating Ha Des and continued to give a rocket boosted sword-slice to Morisato. The simulated force of the sword swing brought Morisato to his knees where he had to stay to catch his breath.

As Morisato knelt there his life point counter popped up one last time to show his life points rapidly falling from the 2400 that it was down to 0. Ranma's life points counter popped up to show his 4750 life points.

"And that duel is over." Ranma said that while giving a peace sign towards Morisato.

Ranma then proceeded to walk across the arena, which was just now reverting to the way that it normally looked, and helped the older man to his feet before shaking his hand.

"That was an excellent duel man. Even if I had a head start in controlling the field you did a great job of taking that control away from me a few times. I was really sweating back there for most of the duel." Ranma said all of this while smiling at his opponent, who was just standing there, shocked with Ranma's hospitality and kind words after the duel.

After a few moments Morisato returned Ranma's smile and laughed.

"Yes, that was a great duel. Congratulations on your victory 'General Wild Horse'." Morisato and Ranma shook hands here as the audience cheered to a duel well played.

OoOoO

Up in their booth Nabiki was surprised. Kasumi watched Nabiki's look amusedly as the girl was looking absolutely shell shocked.

"I…" She mumbled for the third time in as many seconds. "I didn't think that Ranma would be that good." She managed to finish her sentence.

"Yes, despite the odds stacked against Ranma, this has turned out like many of Ranma's martial arts battles. While I was teaching him how to play I came to realize one thing about Ranma." She now had Nabiki's attention.

"It isn't that Ranma is a prodigy at martial arts. That wasn't the reason why he was able to do everything that he did. It is that Ranma thrives in the face of challenge. Ranma is a very intelligent person; he just never really had a reason to show his intelligence in anything other the martial arts until now."

"I believe that Ranma's poor grades in school could be explained by saying that Ranma found no challenges in school. He was most likely bored all of the time, so he would just sleep in class and that resulted in his poor grades. If the school had a system that challenges their students to become better then I'm sure that Ranma could've been one of the top students in Furiken High." Once Kasumi stopped talking she took a sip of her drink and watched as Ranma left the arena into the waiting room that the other competitors were waiting in.

Nabiki thought over what Kasumi had of just told her, and she couldn't help but think about just how right her sister was. Even if they did had things to do with martial arts, Ranma really did strive in learning new techniques and styles, not because Ranma was excited about the technique or style itself, but rather he was excited to learn. He was excited by the challenge in learning that technique or obscure style.

Nabiki had to stop herself from smacking herself on her forehead just thinking about it. She was slowly starting to regret grabbing Ranma when he first came since she now realized that he would've been perfect for her. She couldn't believe that she'd of been frequently dealing with Ranma for over a year now, and yet in only a one month period spent teaching Ranma something, Kasumi was able to learn the one big thing that makes Ranma tick when Nabiki herself didn't.

OoOoO

In another booth higher up than Kasumi and Nabiki sat Seto and Yugi. They both sat there watching the events going on down in the arena with little smirks of their own. They'd of expected Ranma to have won this round.

OoOoO

End Chapter 2

OoOoO

AN: Well that's that. I hope you guys enjoyed my first attempt at a duel. Please tell me if you think I did well with that, or if I could've gone with a little less describing. Then again, I personally think I should keep all of that describing in there for those readers who don't know what certain cards do.

Ranma's opponent in this chapter, Morino Morisato, wasn't really designed after anyone that I know. I just decided to have him as a nondescript middle aged man who was irritable and overconfident. His deck however is based on one of the first decks I used when I first started playing the Yu-Gi-Oh card game. Like Morino's character I started playing just after the release of the 'Metal Raiders' booster set. The deck however was made shortly after I got my own 'Dark Ruler Ha Des'. At the time it was my favorite card because of its effect. Before you ask about why I had the cards 'Gravity Axe Grarl' and 'Archfiend Soldier' in the deck if it was based off of the deck I used back when 'Dark Ruler Ha Des' then the answer is quite simple. It's because time has past since then. If I still used a fiend deck myself, then I'm sure that I would have added those cards to the mix. I didn't want to use 'Bistro Butcher' instead of 'Archfiend Soldier' after all.

I was originally planning to have the next round in the tournament in this chapter, but I changed my mind once I saw just how many pages I wound up taking just to type that first duel. I'll be skipping the other competitors' duels in the first round and the next chapter will begin at the time of the quarter-finals. Where Ranma will be dueling Zane Truesdale. I'm not going to have Ranma defy what I see as fate for that duel either. It will be Ranma's last duel in the tournament, but as Ranma said himself in previous chapters. 'I may not win this tournament, but I'm going to make sure I give them hell before I do.' So expect a good duel.

Adios for now. Cloud1239999 signing off.


	4. Ch 3: Man Vs Machine

OoOoO

The Wild Horse Duels! – A Ranma ½ and Yu-gi-oh GX crossover.

Chapter Three: Saotome vs. Truesdale: Man vs Machine.

Written by: Cloud1239999

OoOoO

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ or Yu-Gi-Oh GX in any name shape or form. The closest thing to it is that I have several Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Gameboy games that I enjoy playing. The deck that Ranma uses however is the deck that I really use for myself in the 'Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters: World Championship 2006' game. Ranma's deck will change a bit too as my deck does in that game.

I thank all of your for the reviews, both possitive, and those that pointed out what people thought my faults are. They have all encouraged me to continue this story further. I hope you all enjoy

OoOoO

In the Kaiba dome, it was two hours since the start of the Pro Test Tournament and the first round had of just come to a close.

Up in his booth, Seto Kaiba leaned back in his chair next to his long time friend and rival; Yugi Motou. They were patiently waiting for the fifteen minute break between the first and second rounds of the tournament to be over.

The back door into the room opened and Banner entered the booth, joining Seto and Yugi in an empty chair to watch the next round.

"Sorry I'm late." Professor Banner broke the companionable silence that had of been in the room before his entry. "I ran into an old acquaintance on my way up here and wound up sitting with him for the first round."

"That's no problem Banner-san." Seto spoke up without looking away from the arena. "What did you think of the first round?" Seto asked this since he knew that a part of the reason Banner was here was to scope out the potential of the participants. Seto didn't know what Banner's exact reasons were for doing this, but Seto and Yugi were curious about what Banner thought.

"Yes, well." Professor Banner cleared his throat here to buy some time in order to clear his thoughts. "I must say that other then the first match, everything went as I expected to, based off of records anyways." Both Seto and Yugi smirked hearing that statement. It seemed to them that anything involving Ranma went in an unexpected direction.

"We will have to wait and see how he does in his next duel though." Yugi spoke up for the first time. "I am curious about how Zane will react to Ranma. I had a conversation with the boy prior to the tournament, and I get the feeling that he and Ranma are alike in many ways." Yugi gave a small smile here.

"They are both duelists who do not do things halfway. They always do things to the best of their abilities, never holding anything back. They both seem to love challenges and that is what makes the game fun for them." Banner nodded his head after a few seconds that he took to compare the two.

"I must agree." Banner spoke up. "However they are both different on the outside. Banner continuously keeps a calm head and keeps his focus on the duel, while Ranma is more like a little kid. During his first match, Ranma showed that he is an emotional during a duel though that can be used as an advantage for him. He could very well use his antics as a weapon in a duel. Giving the opponent false impressions about situations by broadcasting the wrong emotions can most certainly affect the way an opponent will react to an event within the duel." Seto and Yugi nodded their heads in agreement.

"Did you two know that Doctor Crowler decided to go out of his way to get a live broadcast of this tournament?" Banner decided to change the subject. Seto smirked when he heard that.

"Crowler probably decided to do that more so that he could watch Zane then for the benefit of his students." Banner couldn't help but laugh at Seto's statement because it was more than likely true.

The three stayed silent after that to watch the next round of the tournament start up.

OoOoO

"Come on Jaden!" Syrus called out as the two of them along with Chumley and Alexis were running towards the classroom to make it in time to watch the first match of the second round after spending the fifteen minute break between rounds in the cafeteria.

"I'm coming Sy! I wouldn't miss this next match for the world." Jaden called back as he was gaining on his friends. He was hungry, so he went to grab an extra sandwich from the cafeteria lady first.

"The way he was excited over that 'General Wild Horse' guy, you'd think that he might have actually decided not to go for the extra food." That was said by Alexis as she glanced back at Jaden who was eating his sandwich as he ran.

"There you all are. They're just announcing the next round." Bastion who was waiting for them at the classroom door said before they all went in.

Without saying anything they all went into the classroom and retook their seats.

After the announcer said who was dueling next Jaden could be heard cheering from outside of the room.

"Woohoo! Go 'General Wild Horse'!"

"Jaden, that's my brother he's dueling against."

"Sorry Sy, I'm just rooting for the underdog here."

"I still can't believe that he hasn't even been a duelist for any longer than a month." Alexis mumbled to the others, who nodded their agreement.

OoOoO

Down in the arena at the end of the fifteen minute break, there was another billow of smoke that started up just like before the tournament's first round.

"**Welcome back, everyone. The first round of the tournament had eight spectacular duels by sixteen equally spectacular duelists. Now the eight remaining duelists will duel it out in the quarter-finals to see who will move on to the semi-finals."**

As the smoke began to clear everyone could see the eight remaining duelists standing in the same spots and poses as they were before.

"**Now will all of the contenders except for 'General Wild Horse', and Zane Truesdale please clear out to the waiting room?"**

OoOoO

"So Zane," Ranma said to Zane as they stood across from each other in the arena "are you ready to throw it down?" This was all said with a smile on his face.

Zane didn't say anything but he gave a nod.

"**Well folks, the match hasn't even started yet and it looks like our two competitors are already in the heat of the duel." **The announcer didn't say anything for a second as the coin was tossed to see who would go first. **"And 'General Wild Horse' gets first turn."**

Both duelists nodded hearing that as they activated their duel disks and drew their first five cards.

"**Are the duelists ready?" **Upon receiving nods from Ranma and Zane, the announcer continued. **"Begin!"**

"**_Let's Duel!"_** They both said at the same time.

Ranma started by drawing his sixth card and looking over the hand he had. He took a moment to look up at Zane who seemed to just be staring at Ranma waiting for him to go. Ranma grinned at Zane in answer to the silent request of 'go on'.

"To start off my turn I activate a magic card, 'Pot of Greed'. With this I draw two cards." Ranma looked at the new cards in his hand and analyzed what his next move should be. After a few seconds he continued.

"I set one monster in defense mode, and set one card face down. I then end my turn."

"**And that's a strong opening move for 'General Wild Horse'. After his last duel, we have to wonder what kinds of tricks he's going to pull now that he was the first to go."**

"Very well." Zane spoke up for the first time since they came up on the stage. "For starters, I'll play Cyber Dragon, in Attack mode." That move surprised Ranma. He watched as the large metallic dragon appeared in front of him.

"Hold on a second." The card sounded familiar to Ranma. He thought it was one of the ones that Kasumi showed him, but he didn't give much thought to it since he had a level four monster in his deck that is stronger then that one.

"I see you vaguely remember this card from somewhere. I shall refresh your memory of this card though. Cyber Dragon is a level five monster with the special effect that if all monsters on the field are on your side, then I can special summon this one." Zane took a second to let Ranma absorb the information. As Zane did so an Attack Point counter came up to show that the Cyber Dragon had 2100 attack points.

Now that Ranma thought about it more, he realized that the deadly part of that card was the fact that it was a special summon. If Zane wanted to he could still do his normal summon.

"Now, my Cyber Dragon will attack your face down monster." Zane raised his right hand into the air towards his monster. "Now Cyber Dragon, use your Strident Blast attack."

Zane was surprised when Ranma's face became a smirk upon seeing the Cyber Dragon's blast charge in his mouth. 'A trap card.' Zane thought as he watched his dragon's attack go towards the face-down monster. When Zane noticed that Ranma was making no move to activate any of his facedown cards he realized that it was actually a flip-effect monster that Ranma put on the field.

Zane could only watch as Ranma's facedown monster card turned face up to reveal a machine monster that looked like a pod.

"Congratulations Zane, you just activated the flip effect of my Cyber Jar."

"**What's this folks it seems that 'General Wild Horse' has put an unexpected card in his deck."** Ranma's smirk grew a little bigger upon hearing the commentary by the announcer.

"That's right. Now that my Cyber Jar's effect has been activated we can begin the first phase of the card. Say goodbye to your Cyber Dragon, because the first part of my jar's effect is to explode destroying all monsters on the field." Sure enough as Ranma said, the cyber jar took the hit from the Cyber Dragon and blew up in a giant fireball that took the Cyber Dragon down with it.

Even before the dust from the explosion could clear Ranma's voice could be heard coming from within the smoke.

"Now that all monsters are off of the field Cyber Jar's second part comes into play. Draw five cards Zane, but don't add them to your hand yet." As Ranma spoke the smoke cleared showing Ranma standing right in front of Zane, grinning at the slightly taller man. Zane was startled because he didn't think that Ranma would've been able to cover that distance so quickly, never mind doing it in such a quiet manner. "Once we've drawn our five cards we show them to each other." Ranma turned his words into action and showed Zane the five cards that he'd of drawn. They were Release Restraint, Blast with Chain, Elemental Hero Wildheart, Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke, and Reinforcement of the Army.

After seeing Ranma's five cards Zane drew his own and showed them to Ranma. They were Polymerization, Cyber Dragon, Cyber Puree, Proto-Cyber Dragon, and Machine Duplication.

"Alright then, the final part of my Cyber Jar's effect is that out of the five cards that we drew, all level four or below monsters are automatically special summoned to the field in either face-up attack position or facedown defense position. The rest of the cards are added to our hands."

Zane's Cyber Puree appeared on the field in defense position while the Proto-Cyber Dragon appeared in attack mode, showing that it had 1100 attack points.

On Ranma's side of the field appeared his Elemental Hero Wildheart, and Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke all in attack mode. Displays came up to show that the three monsters had 1300, 1500, and 1800 attack points respectively.

Zane took a moment to look at his hand after the monsters were finished being summoned.

"For my next card I play 'Polymerization'." Showing the card to Ranma, Zane continued. "I'm sure that you know what this card does." Ranma nodded. "With this card I fuse together my two Cyber Dragon's on my field and in my hand together to create, the 'Cyber Twin Dragon'."

Ranma watched the proceedings as only one Cyber Dragon appeared on the field temporarily as it and the Proto-Cyber Dragon spun around each other into the air until they disappeared in a flash of light for a split second before it disappeared revealing the two headed metallic dragon to Ranma.

"In case you didn't know, Proto-Cyber Dragon has an effect, where as long as it is face-up on the field, it counts as a normal Cyber Dragon. That makes it so that I can use it instead of one of my normal Cyber Dragons in the fusion."

"Now unfortunately since I already attacked this turn, I can not attack you now. I play one facedown card and end my turn." Zane put a card in a magic/trap slot of his duel disk and the set card appeared facedown.

Ranma nodded to Zane. He looked a little nervous staring down the two headed dragon, but his brain was racing over what cards he had available to him and he was starting to pull something together that he might be able to use.

"You know Zane; this situation reminds me of my life, or at least the situation I was in, before one month ago." Up in their booths, the statement caught the attentions of Banner, Kasumi, Nabiki, Seto, and Yugi.

"You see, I am a martial artist. I have been training to fight since I was six years old." Zane stood there impassively listening to Ranma as was the audience which was nearly completely silent. Ranma chuckled to himself. "I have learned, went through, and completed over one hundred different training exercises and learnt even more maneuvers and techniques. Not to brag or anything, but I have mastered over ten complete styles, including taikwando and jujitsu, and learned the vast majority of at least five more." Ranma took a deep breath while wearing a reminiscent look on his face.

"In order to learn all of these things I had to follow three lessons that I keep close to my heart." Here Ranma gave a large smile while moving his left fist to in front of his heart. He then held up one finger of his right hand in front of him. "The first is that nothing is impossible. Where there's a will to do something there's a way." Ranma then raised a second finger.

"The second is actually a saying I heard from my father constantly, which I later turned it around to a greater scale. 'A martial artist's life is fraught with peril.' I wound up changing it to say 'Everybody's lives are fraught with peril. If I never took any risks with what I do in my life then I would never live satisfied, I'd always find myself asking 'What if' questions all the time, and besides that I would never have achieved what I have now." Then the third finger went up.

"My third lesson is to never give up. Even in defeat there is something to be learned. You've just got to know how to pick out the important pieces of information and to learn from them. I know I have had to several times." Ranma grinned here as he rested his right hand by his side for a second.

"Zane, I can recognize that you're a truly great duelist. I respect that and I know that I'm going to lose this duel, but I'm going to put my three lessons to use here today." Ranma smirked at Zane's surprised look as Ranma settled into a martial arts stance where he kept his right hand in a fist by his side while his left arm was hooked in front of him so that his duel disk was facing towards Zane. Ranma's body was turned slightly so that his left side was facing Zane and he kept his left foot a little further ahead then his right foot.

"Today I add a fourth lesson to the previous three that will apply as long as I am a duelist. No matter what happens in a game, I will always have fun." Zane was now smirking at Ranma with a look of respect in his eyes. Up in their booth, Banner, Seto, and Yugi had the same respectful look in their eyes.

"Now, I start off by playing a magic card, 'Reinforcement of the Army'. With this card, I search my deck for any level four or lower monster that I want and add it to my hand." After Ranma finished grabbing the card from his deck and quickly shuffling it Ranma showed Zane his card. "I chose to bring forth, 'Marauding Captain'. Then I play my magic card, 'Nobleman of Extermination'. With this card I choose one of your facedown magic or trap cards and remove it from play." The nobleman appears on the field charging past all of Zane's monsters and strikes down on Zane's facedown card destroying it. All other copies of that card in both of out decks are then removed from play as well."

Zane's duel disk then lights up for a second as it pulls one more card out of his deck and puts it in the removed section of the duel disk.

"I now play my monster, the 'Marauding Captain' in attack mode." Just like the last duel Ranma had, the captain appeared on the field in the same fashion. "Since I just normal summoned 'Marauding Captain', his first effect activates allowing me to special summon any level four or lower monster from my hand to the field." Ranma then grabbed one more monster card from his hand and puts it on his duel disk. "And my second monster choice is, 'Exiled Force'."

Four mercenary soldiers appeared on the field in a small burst of light. A display came up to show that the 'Exiled Force' had 1000 attack points. After they were finished being summoned Ranma pointed his right hand towards Zane's Cyber Twin Dragon.

"Go get him boys. Destroy that Cyber Twin Dragon over there." The four mercenaries gave a cheer to the command and charged towards the dragon.

Zane was startled again by the move. This was the second time that Zane was startled in a single duel, which was actually quite rare for him to be startled at all during one.

"Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that I'm not actually attacking your Cyber Twin Dragon with my Exiled Force. These guys actually pack some pretty serious heat, or shall I say a ton of C4 on their bodies. By sacrificing my 'Exiled Force' monster card from the field, I can destroy any one monster on the field."

Sure enough, the events to happen were just like what Ranma said. Everybody watched as the four mercenaries ran across the field and jumped onto Zane's dragon in different positions before pulling out little remotes and pressing a button on each one simultaneously causing them along with the dragon to go out in a large explosion.

"I'm not finished yet. I now have my 'Marauding Captain attack your facedown monster." Just before the captain reached the facedown card it flipped over to reveal 'Cyber Puree' which got cut into three pieces by the Captain's swords. Ranma rubbed his chin for a second as his captain pack pedaled back to its position on his side of the field. "No offense meant Zane, but I'm beginning to wonder if I would be able to open a scrap yard with all the left over metal I'm leaving behind here." Ranma smirked at his comment and got some laughter from some members of the audience as well. After a second, Ranma refocused on the game though.

"Now I'll have my Elemental Hero Wildheart, and my Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke both attack you for a total of 3300 damage to your life points." Both of the mentioned monsters charged forward and delivered their blows to Zane leaving him with 700 life points.

"**Wow people, it seems that even though 'General Wild Horse' said that he doesn't believe he will win, it appears to me that he is in complete control of the game and just dealt one big blow to Zane Truesdale's life points. By all means it looks like 'General Wild Horse' might actually come out of this without any damage to his life points."**

"I doubt that." Ranma said that as he saw satisfaction cross Zane's eyes even if his body signals didn't show anything.

"How correct you are General." Zane spoke as he let a small smile cross his face. It was a nice duel and all, but I believe I'll be taking back a large chunk of the scrap metal that you've collected right now."

"Go right ahead." Ranma spoke waving his hand to the side like a gentleman. The smile he wore never left his face.

"Thanks, but now I play my favorite card, 'Power Bond'." Ranma quirked his eyebrow, waiting to see what he would fuse with it. Zane saw this and continued. "Power Bond is an alternative to 'Polymerization', but for machine fusions only. So, I would like you to say hello to an old friend of ours." The old friend comment caught Ranma's attention since he knew that Zane shouldn't have the means to summon another Cyber Twin Dragon right now, but that is exactly what wound up happening.

"Oh, you may be wondering where the monsters that I need to sacrifice are right now, but that is no problem for me right now with this card." Zane showed Ranma a second card; Ranma noticed that it was a quick play card by its icon. "This card is 'Cybernetic Fusion Support'. By paying half of my life points, I don't need to sacrifice any monsters to the fusion of a machine monster."

A display of Zane's life points came up again showing Zane's life points going down from 700 to 350.

"Now welcome back, Cyber Twin Dragon!"

Ranma watched as the two Cyber Dragons went through the process of their fusion again, except this time it actually used two normal Cyber Dragons. After it was complete Ranma saw the dragon gain a blue aura for a few seconds as a display popped up to show the Cyber Twin Dragon's attack doubling to 5600.

"Now this is going to hurt." Ranma commented as he stared up at the dragon with a smile on his face. Zane smiled right back at Ranma's comment. "Good duel." Ranma said as he watched the energy gather in the two dragon heads' mouths.

"Yes, good duel." When Zane said that, Ranma's world turned white as he was caught in the virtual explosion that hit his Marauding Captain head on.

As this was happening a display came up showing Ranma's life points drop from their original 4000 to 0. The attack had of dealt a total of 4600 life points damage through Ranma's Marauding Captain.

When the explosion finished Ranma was standing directly in front of Zane again. This time Zane wasn't surprised though, he'd of kept a close eye on Ranma as he wound up suddenly dashing forward to Zane's position even before the light was finished fading.

Ranma stood there staring up into Zane's eyes as the audience was waiting for what was going to happen. After a few seconds the silence was broken by, surprisingly to those who know him well, Zane.

"You know, with that speed of yours and your costume you reminded me of some comic book super hero for a minute there." Ranma blinked at the taller man's comment and the smirk that accompanied it. Ranma then burst out laughing as he shook hands with Zane.

"Thanks for the duel man. It was really fun." Zane nodded his head in agreement. Ranma then turned to walk off the stage, but stopped at the edge to call over his shoulder. "We'll have to have a rematch sometime during the year at Duel Academy. I wouldn't miss that for the world." With what he wanted said, Ranma walked off the stage to the cheers of the audience.

Zane watched him go before smiling again to himself. "We'll see." Zane said quietly to himself as he headed in the opposite direction of Ranma to the waiting room amidst his own cheers.

OoOoO

Back at the Duel Academy there were several people cheering themselves after the duel. One group that sat in the middle of the group was quite shocked at how the duel went.

"That guy nearly beat my brother?" Syrus was quite shocked. It was quite understandable really, if you consider Zane's record of no losses in the Duel Academy.

"Zane made some wise-cracks?" That came from Alexis who in her conversations with Zane didn't think that he had a humorous bone in his body. He always seemed too serious for her.

"Wow, talk about a close duel. That 'General Wild Horse is really good." Jaden spoke up with a grin on his face. "I certainly wouldn't mind dueling against him."

"Well he did mention that he was going to come to Duel Academy." Jaden and his friends were surprised to hear Chancellor Sheppard's voice speak up from the row behind them. Sitting next to him was Doctor Crowler, head of the Obelisk Blue Dorm.

"I must admit that he's not that bad, though I think that he had a lot of luck to get that damage in on Zane." Crowler didn't like that Zane was nearly defeated in that match.

"Either way Crowler," Sheppard spoke up again "luck is a part of dueling no matter how you look at it." Crowler could only nod his head in agreement no matter how much he didn't want to right then.

OoOoO

"Way to go Ranma." Nabiki said as Ranma entered their booth after receiving directions to it from Bill Leeman, who was waiting just outside of the Arena for Ranma after the match.

"Yes Ranma, you did a great job." Kasumi smiled at Ranma.

Ranma returned the smile before grabbing the third chair that was hidden in the corner of the booth and sitting down.

"So are you two having fun?" Ranma asked them as he watched the end of the next match. The direct attack from that 'Archlord Zerato' looked like it would've really hurt if it was real.

"Yeah, actually." Nabiki said. "I never actually thought that watching these matches would be this exciting, especially with someone you know competing." Nabiki turned around from watching the two new duelist's get onto the duel arena to smile at Ranma.

"Good to know I didn't bore you." Ranma said with a slight smirk.

"Ranma, no matter what anyone has said there's never a dull moment around you." Nabiki said that while watching the first turn of the new duel. It turned out that the guy did the exact same thing as Ranma did in his duel against Zane. Set one monster in facedown defense mode, and set a spell or trap card. It was starting to look like a common opening move, except that the cards used turned out different with each of the duelists.

The rest of that round was spent watching one guy get absolutely creamed on the third turn by his opponent, and then watching a drawn out duel with so many ups and downs the audience didn't know who to cheer for. Ranma actually was just starting to grow bored with the pattern when it finally ended.

"Now a duel that takes forty turns is pretty ridiculous in my books." Ranma spoke up as he yawned. He looked at the clock seeing that it was already four in the afternoon. "I think I'm going to go and try to find Professor Banner. I told him that I'd go speak with him once I was finished competing in the tournament."

"So you're going to take his offer to join up with Duel Academy Ranma?" Nabiki asked.

"Yeah." Ranma said. "I'm going to be getting more details out of him when I see him, so I'll be telling you two more afterwards." Both of the girls nodded. "If I'm not back by the time that the tournament ends, then please wait a few minutes. I'll get down here from wherever as quickly as possible. I'd like to walk with you two home." Upon receiving nods from them Ranma left the room with a wave over his shoulder.

OoOoO

End Chapter 3

OoOoO

AN: That chapter was fun to right. If you guys think I had Zane being a bit too open during the duel, then I'll explain that in one sentence. 'Ranma has that kind of effect on people.' I really believe that to be true. At times Ranma could bring out the best in people, though at the same time he could bring out the worst in them too. It's like the chaos in Ranma's life has an effect on the people around him, so don't be surprised to see unexpected things like that from my writing. I'll try to keep anything like that within imaginable limits for the characters, though if you think it's a little too far fetch'd then please tell me and I'll try to correct it.

I thank you all again for reading the story. I look forward to writing more.

PS. In this story I'm not going to answer any reviews. If I answer any reviews it will be done by 'Review-replies' from the ffnet website.

Next chapter is when Ranma leaves Nerima. Will Kasumi be leaving too? Either way, expect a fight or two.


End file.
